Hubert Davis doesn’t believe in ‘moral victories.’
He just hates losing.
On Tuesday, the North Carolina men’s basketball team lost to No. 13 Virginia, 65-58. Less than two minutes into the contest, senior forward Armando Bacot — the Tar Heels’ leading scorer and rebounder — went down with what appeared to be a left ankle injury. He hobbled to the bench, then to the locker room, but never back to the court.
This left the Tar Heels without two starters, as graduate forward Pete Nance remained sidelined with a back injury. Despite the missing pieces, North Carolina held a halftime lead it wouldn’t lose until over seven minutes into the second frame.
With 1:08 remaining in the game, UNC cut the deficit to three. Bacot’s replacement, first-year Jalen Washington, shined in his first meaningful minutes as a Tar Heel.
Given these circumstances, some may be compelled to call Tuesday’s loss a ‘moral victory.’ But Hubert Davis thought otherwise.
“You can say ‘Wow, look how they fought without Armando and Pete,’” he said. “But it's an L. It’s our sixth loss. We needed to be better to win here, and we have enough on this stat sheet to have won this game tonight. And we didn’t get it done.”
In the final three minutes, UNC cut its deficit down to three twice. On both occasions, the Cavaliers went right back down the court and scored.
“Against a great, veteran, experienced team like that sometimes you’ve got to dial in,” junior guard RJ Davis said. “I think we just had one little slip up, which is ‘now we’re not disciplined.’”
