Men's basketball wins sloppy ACC opener against Virginia

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Basketball games that come down to the wire are typically decided by the team that wants it more.

North Carolina’s ACC season opener against Virginia on Saturday was not one of those games.

The two ACC squads struggled with sub-27 percent shooting in the second half before the Tar Heels pulled away in the final minute, winning 62-56 in Charlottesville.

“I feel like I’ve been inside the cookie jar, the cookie store, and stole every cookie out of the jar and stole every cookie out of the store and I want to get out of town as fast as I can,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “It was one of the ugliest W’s I’ve ever been involved with.”

For most of the game, the Tar Heels and Cavaliers looked like two one-armed boxers battling in the ring. While UNC did orchestrate a comeback after trailing by 11 in the second half, it did so with 7-for-26 shooting.

Starting at the 5:01 mark, junior forward Tyler Zeller hit two sets of free throws on back-to-back UNC possessions to knot the game at 50. John Henson gave UNC its first lead since 3:56 in the first half when his drive from the top of the key and finger roll put the Tar Heels up by two.

North Carolina staved off a couple of Jontel Evans’ drives with the help of a clutch rejection by Harrison Barnes and several free throws after the Cavaliers began fouling in desperation.

“It was a big play for us,” Williams said. “I didn’t want to let Jontel go in there and lay it up twice in a row like we did. We didn’t want to give up the 3 or give them a lay-up that quickly either.”

UNC went 8:53 without a basket during a period that spanned both halves. In that time, Virginia posted 11 points while North Carolina missed 13 shots and committed six fouls.

“Unfortunately, it’s not the first time we’ve done that,” Zeller said. “We’ve done it a couple times. We knew at that point and time we had to do better and start making shots.”

UNC improved its defense out of intermission and held the home team to eight points in the first eight minutes of the frame. Zeller put in the Tar Heels’ first basket of the half at 15:03 to end the drought.

But UNC really made up the margin from the free-throw line. The Tar Heels went 17-for-22 in the second half from the stripe after the Cavaliers committed 15 fouls.

“For the most part I thought our positioning was pretty good,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “When we trapped I thought we were really aggressive and we talk about position and not getting stretched. They’re a physical team and they’re big and they keep coming at you and because we were a little outsized we probably picked up some, but there were some tough calls. That’s part of it.”

Zeller led UNC with 12 points and was the only Tar Heel in double figures. Virginia had four players with 10 or more points, with freshman KT Harrell posting 13.

Henson, who shoots 35 percent from the line, was once again held out late in the game. He played only 20 minutes for UNC — shorter than any other starter from either team. He continued to have his hand wrapped after injuring his thumb against Illinois on Nov. 30.

“I’m going to stop wearing the tape next game,” Henson said. “We just had it one more game. It’s fine. I don’t know about the minutes though, I don’t look at that.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.