North Carolina’s Garrison Brooks, left, and guard Kenny Williams, right, hold back Virginia forward Isaiah Wilkins for a rebound during the Cavaliers’ 71-63 win in the ACC title game at Barclays Center.
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As the University of North Carolina Tar Heels prepare to play the University of Virginia Cavaliers in an ACC tournament game tonight, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam chose to make the game a bit more interesting.
All season the Tar Heels have been basically auditioning different members for a consistent third scorer behind Luke Maye and Joel Berry II.
The Cavaliers (31-2) will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, trying to get to the program’s first Final Four since Bennett took over nine years ago.
Virginia, meanwhile, is 3-5 from deep – Devon Hall has two of those and has 6 early points.
There could probably still be cases for that to be made, but the thoughts of a team with 10 losses being a No. 1 seed is nonsense.
That two-pointer gave UVA a two-possession advantage at 54-49, and UNC was never able to cut it closer than five for the duration of the final.
Defending national champion North Carolina is a strong candidate for a No. 2 seed, and that’s where Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report projects the Tar Heels at this time.
Daxter Miles Jr. and Jevon Carter were again instrumental for West Virginia (24-10).
Nick Rakocevic led USC with 13 points.
Jordan Bone scored a team-high 19 points and the Volunteers dominated the Razorbacks in the SEC semifinals at St. Louis.
In addition to the three points earned in the 800 meters, she ran a 56-second split in the 400-meter relay to help her team take fifth in 3:38.15 and earn five points for UNC. They won both meetings with the Wildcats in the regular season. Admiral Schofield added 16 points for Tennessee, while Grant Williams, Kyle Alexander and James Daniel III finished with 12 points apiece.
Virginia’s 71 points were its third highest point total since January 3.
Virginia did all this, mind you, while turning the ball over just four times as a team, combining to make nine of their 17 three-point attempts and hitting 20 of their 22 shots from the free-throw line. Jerome, meanwhile, led the Cavaliers with six assists and chipped in 12 points of his own.
The Southeastern Conference comes in second with eight. Houston, No. 21 in the AP Top 25, knocked off Wichita State before losing to Cincinnati by one in the American Athletic Conference title game Sunday. The Cavaliers used this efficiency to hold at least a share of the lead for the final 37 minutes and change.
The play for No. 1 seeds were coming down to a few teams on Saturday.
The late basket was just Robinson’s second of the game.
A four-point halftime lead for Virginia grew to 48-39 with 15 minutes to go thanks to a 7-2 spurt in which Guy had a pair of assists. Wendell Carter is a lottery pick, a workhorse on the block that can wall-up at the rim and pound the glass and overwhelm just about any defender that comes his way, and he’s clearly and undoubtedly the second-best big man on their roster.
The show starts at 6 p.m. and we already know UNC is in the tournament, so the possible drama likely won’t start till later in the show.
And North Carolina can win it all, too.
Kellan Grady added 23 points for Davidson (20-11).
Even after Matthew Moyer’s demotion from the starting lineup, Bourama Sidibe finished the season in a distant seventh on the team in minutes played (12.7 per game in 26 games).
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