Graduate guard Lexi Donarski heaved a 3-pointer with two Virginia defenders closing out her shot. The ball missed, hitting high off the glass.
The Cavaliers ran to the other end of the court. They jumped up and down, screaming as a team, while the defeated Tar Heels dispiritedly high-fived one another.
Junior guard Indya Nivar put her hands on her head and made her way through the handshake line.
“We ran out of gas,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “I thought we just really couldn’t get out of playing tired in that second half.”
On what was supposed to be a celebratory Senior Day for North Carolina, the No. 8 Tar Heels fell to Virginia, 78-75, in their last game of the regular season. Undermanned UNC led by as many as 18 points in Carmichael Arena on Sunday afternoon, but failed to string together productive possessions down the final stretch. As a result, North Carolina was outscored by seven in the fourth quarter and 48-34 in the second half.
North Carolina clung to an eight-point advantage with five minutes to go in the game.
Then things started to fall apart.
In those final few minutes, the Tar Heels committed four turnovers and converted on only 2-of-5 shots from the field. These careless plays opened the door for the Cavaliers, who stepped to the free-throw line with 27 seconds left and took their first lead of the game since it was 4-3.
Nivar then ripped her way through defenders to the basket on the other end, pushing UNC ahead, 75-74. But another foul against North Carolina sent Virginia back to the charity stripe. The Cavaliers took back the lead.