Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics
Virginia Basketball Falls to North Carolina 71-63 | Live Updates
The No. 6 Virginia Cavaliers (21-6, 13-5 ACC) fell to the North Carolina Tar Heels (18-11, 10-8 ACC) 71-63 on Saturday night in Chapel Hill. See a full play-by-play and live analysis for the game below. Most recent updates are at the top of the page.
Read a full recap of the game here: Virginia Drops Second-Straight in 71-63 Loss at North Carolina
Final Score: Virginia 63, North Carolina 71
Virginia fouls Caleb Love and he makes both free throws. Clark quickly brings the ball up the floor and hands off to Armaan Franklin, who hits a deep off-balance three-pointer to make it an eight-point game again. UVA fouls Puff Johnson, who misses both free throws and the door remains slightly open. Clark gets the ball to a cutting Franklin, who finishes off the glass and UVA trails by six points with 18.4 remaining. Clark fouls Caleb Love, who makes both free throws. Clark drives right at Pete Nance, who denies Clark's layup attempt and fittingly ends the game for North Carolina. UNC beats UVA 71-63.
Virginia 63, North Carolina 71 | Final
Clark misses the ensuing free throw and Virginia has now missed five-consecutive free throws. Beekman forces a bad miss from Caleb Love and then Clark feeds Gardner for a mid-range jumper. Gardner has 16 points. Armaan Franklin forces a turnover and gets out in transition to finish with a dunk, cutting the UNC lead to eight points with 90 seconds left. RJ Davis is fouled in the back court and he makes both ends of the one-and-one. Leaky Black comes over and pins Clark's layup attempt against the backboard. Virginia fouls Leaky Black, who goes to the line and makes 1/2. Beekman air-balls a mid-range jumper and that should just about do it. Clark intentionally fouls Caleb Love, who makes 1/2 free throws. Franklin misses a deep three, but Gardner is there for the putback plus a foul on Love. Gardner completes the three-point play and Virginia trails 67-58 with 38 seconds left.
Virginia 58, North Carolina 67 | 38.8 2H
Clark makes both free throws and it's back to a 10-point deficit. Caleb Love goes to the floor to try to draw a charge and doesn't get the call, but Gardner fails to capitalize on the wide-open shot from point-blank. Pete Nance slips a screen and Caleb Love zips a pass to him for an open dunk. Nance is up to 18 points on 7/10 shooting. Puff Johnson is called for a blocking foul, but Ben Vander Plas misses both free throws and neither were particularly close. UVA got the offensive rebound off the missed foul shots and Dunn tries to throw down a dunk but Pete Nance rejects the shot at the rim. UNC fouls Beekman in transition, but Beekman misses the front end of the one-and-one. UVA is missing layups and free throws - difficult to win a game like that. Nance draws a foul and makes both free throws, giving the Tar Heels at 14-point lead with five minutes left. Reece Beekman makes a big play for Virginia, getting around Love and scoring off the glass plus a foul. Beekman misses the ensuing free throw. Puff Johnson is left wide open under the basket and Nance finds him for a layup. UNC gets another stop and Gardner fouls Nance, who makes both ends of the one-and-one. Kihei Clark splashes a jumper from a foot inside the three-point line. Clark then picks RJ Davis' pocket in the back court. Gardner's transition layup is blocked by Nance, but Clark wrestles the rebound away and scores off the glass plus a foul on Love. The fifth-year senior is showing some fight late in this game, but Virginia still trails by 12 with less than three minutes left.
Virginia 51, North Carolina 63 | 2:57 2H
Armando Bacot is fouled and makes 1/2 free throws. Virginia goes with a very small lineup of Kihei Clark, Reece Beekman, Isaac McKneely, Ryan Dunn, and Jayden Gardner, with Gardner the primary defender on Bacot. That lineup works on the defensive end for a couple of possessions, but the Cavaliers still can't score. Armando Bacot gets a high-arcing hook shot to fall over Gardner. Bacot is called for an off-ball foul, his fourth personal foul with more than eight minutes remaining in the game. Kihei Clark drives on RJ Davis and draws a foul and will shoot a pair of free throws after the timeout, hoping to end a 4:23 UVA scoring drought.
Virginia 43, North Carolina 55 | 7:59 2H
Davis completes the three-point play and the UNC lead is back to 12 points. Armaan Franklin works his way inside and uses a pump-fake move to draw a foul on Bacot and manages to score off the glass. That's three personal fouls on Armando Bacot and Franklin hits the ensuing free throw. Nance gets the ball near the basket and hits a short jumper with a soft bounce off the rim. Beekman gets inside and works the ball to Gardner, who scores at the rim. Davis gets to the basket, but Ryan Dunn is there to erase the shot at the rim. UNC is leaving the door open for UVA, but the Cavaliers have to start stringing some made baskets together.
Virginia 43, North Carolina 52 | 11:25 2H
Virginia gets off to a good start in the second half as Ben Vander Plas gets an open look and hits his second three-pointer of the game. UVA runs a nice high-low play and Vander Plas gets free under the basket for a layup. Virginia gets another stop and then Beekman sends a pocket pass to Gardner, who hits a mid-range jumper from the baseline. North Carolina snaps UVA's 7-0 run as Armando Bacot comes up with an offensive rebound and lays it in. Gardner makes a fantastic defensive play, coming over to alter Bacot's shot and then dives to save the loose ball from going out of bounds. UVA takes advantage of that possession as Kihei Clark his a contested three-pointer from the left wing. North Carolina has an answer as Leaky Black gets open in the corner and hits the three-pointer. Beekman shows some aggressiveness, driving past Pete Nance and scoring with a reverse layup. With the shot clock winding down, RJ Davis drives around Kihei Clark and hits a floater plus a foul. Virginia's offense is looking better to start the second half, but the offense appears to still be very vulnerable.
Virginia 38, North Carolina 49 | 15:30 2H
It's all falling for the Tar Heels now. RJ Davis pulls up over Kihei Clark and swishes North Carolina's seventh three-pointer of the game. UNC came into the game averaging less than seven made threes per game. Armaan Franklin gets on the board with a driving layup, but UNC has an answer right away as RJ Davis backs down Kihei Clark and scores off the glass plus a foul on Jayden Gardner. Davis completes the three-point play and it's a 17-point lead for UNC. Gardner creates a second-chance for UVA with a tap-out and then Beekman finds a cutting Armaan Franklin, who finishes at the rim with a flush. Bacot gets inside positioning on Gardner and collects an offensive rebound before finishing with the easy putback layup. Reece Beekman pulls up and hits a mid-range jumper. Isaac McKneely finds a lane and sends a high-arcing floater above the block attempt from Bacot and off the glass. Gardner draws an offensive foul on Bacot, who exits the game with two personal fouls. Ryan Dunn snags an offensive rebound and had a good look at an easy layup or dunk but he misses at the rim. With the clock winding down, Pete Nance pulls up with Jayden Gardner in his face and drains the three-pointer, his fourth and UNC's ninth three of the first half. North Carolina hangs 42 on Virginia and leads 42-26 at halftime.
Virginia 26, North Carolina 42 | Halftime
Bacot passes out of a double team and Caleb Love makes the extra pass to Puff Johnson, who knocks down UNC's sixth three-pointer of the game. Bacot drives inside and kicks to Johnson, who hits his second three in as many possessions and North Carolina leads by 12. Ben Vander Plas springs free after setting a screen and knocks down a much-needed three for himself and for UVA. Bacot attacks Vander Plas in the paint and draws a foul, making both free throws to get himself on the board. Virginia continues to settle for mid-range jumpers and those shots are not falling at a high rate for the Cavaliers. Vander Plas falls down trying to go for a steal and Armando Bacot collects the ball and throws down an easy two-handed dunk. North Carolina leads 31-18 with less than four to go in the first half.
Virginia 18, North Carolina 31 | 3:57 1H
Virginia gets a couple of stops and then finally snaps a scoring drought as Isaac McKneely comes free off of a screen and hits a mid-range jumper. There's a scrum for a loose ball and UNC gains possession, leading to a wide open three for Pete Nance, who hits his third three-pointer of the game. North Carolina came into tonight with the ACC's worst three-point shooting percentage at 29.9%. The Tar Heels have started the game 5/11 from beyond the arc. Beekman throws a lob to Kadin Shedrick, who is fouled and makes 1/2 free throws. Gardner uses some nice footwork to free himself for a close jumper off the glass from the low block. Gardner has 10 points, but no one else seems to be able to score for Virginia. UNC hasn't scored in nearly four minutes, but UVA hasn't been able to take advantage and still trails by six.
Virginia 15, North Carolina 21 | 6:28 1H
Virginia inserts Kadin Shedrick (for Vander Plas) and Isaac McKneely (for Clark) out of the timeout. UVA forces a North Carolina shot-clock violation to take us the under-12 minute timeout.
Virginia 10, North Carolina 18 | 11:21 1H
Armaan Franklin has his layup rejected at the rim and is slow to get up. UNC takes advantage of the 5-on-4 opportunity and Pete Nance knocks down an open corner three to get the scoring started. Jayden Gardner gets an open look from the right elbow and knocks it down to get UVA on the board. Caleb Love hoists up a heavily-contested three with Reece Beekman's hand in his face and gets a lucky bounce off the glass. UVA answers as Gardner hits another mid-range jumper. After a missed three from Love, Gardner gets free underneath the basket and scores off the glass and he has all six of UVA's points to start the game. RJ Davis beats Kihei Clark off the dribble and there's no rim protector to help and Davis gets an easy layup. With Pete Nance guarding him, Beekman drives inside and hits a runner in the paint, a good sign for Beekman, who has been struggling on the offensive end of the floor recently. RJ Davis gets a clean look from three and splashes the triple from the left wing. Jayden Gardner responds with another mid-range jumper. Pete Nance backs down Gardner and hits a turnaround jumper. Caleb Love drives past Ben Vander Plas and hits a floater in the paint. UNC gets another stop and then Pete Nance hits a rhythm three from the left wing, capping a 7-0 run to take a 18-10 lead. Tony Bennett calls timeout.
Virginia 10, North Carolina 18 | 12:37 1H
