3 Tobacco Road Takeaways from UNC's Balanced Win

North Carolina took an 89-82 victory over Virginia Tech. It was a tight-knit ball game where neither team was going to give up. UNC earned the victory over the Hokies.

The Tar Heels have two games left in the regular season, which include Clemson and Duke. Every game from here on out is very crucial, and the Tar Heels must keep on churning.

Here are three takeaways from UNC’s win over the Hokies.

Bench can lead UNC into March

All season, the bench has been lacking for the most part for UNC. There have been multiple games where most of the production has been from the starters. All that has changed as of late.

When Caleb Wilson went down with his injury, a flip switched. The bench for UNC has significantly increased in production in five games without Wilson, and this is a great sign for the Tar Heels coming up on the ACC Tournament.

Luka Bogavac will more than likely return to the bench when Wilson comes back. That means the bench will be comprised of Bogavac, Jonathan Powell and Zayden High. All three have been playing very well as of late. A bench consisting of those three can carry the Tar Heels to a deep run in March.

Double bye in grasp

UNC needs to get a top-four seed in the ACC to secure a double bye in the ACC Tournament. They need to win out and get help. Good news for them, they got that help, and defeated the Hokies.

NC State was ahead of the Tar Heels in the standings and owned the tiebreaker. The Wolfpack needed to lose for UNC to get back in the fold, and that is exactly what happened. They lost to Notre Dame over the weekend in overtime.

UNC is currently the fourth seed in the conference after how this past weekend unfolded. If the Tar Heels defeat Clemson and Duke this weekend, then they will receive a double bye in the ACC Tournament.

UNC turned the corner defending the 3

Most of the season, the Tar Heels have defended the 3-point line very poorly. Something is different in the water as of late, and UNC has held its opponents to an average to poor shooting percentage from beyond the arc.

It has not all been lockdown defense, as the Tar Heels have benefited from their opponents missing open shots, but UNC has played significantly better defense from 3-point range as of late.

The Hokies shot just 39% from three against the Tar Heels, and that was one of the main reasons why UNC got the win. The Tar Heels have played better on-ball defense and closing out on shooters. Head coach Hubert Davis deserves a lot of credit for turning this defense around for the Tar Heels.

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