North Carolina's 54-51 victory Feb. 25 at Virginia didn't clinch anything as far as the conference race goes, but it did keep the Tar Heels on track for their winner-take-all showdown with Duke.
The Tar Heels improved to 12-2 in the ACC, same as Duke after the Blue Devils escaped with an overtime win over Virginia Tech earlier in the day.
Thus the two close rivals remained tied at the top of the standings with two games left in the regular season.
Both teams have midweek tests -- North Carolina hosts Maryland and Duke travels to Wake Forest -- before they meet in Durham on March 3, the final Saturday of the regular season.
Though the Tar Heels were not pushed into overtime like the Blue Devils were, they did have to overcome a six-point deficit less than three minutes into the second half.
After enjoying leads of up to nine points in the first half, they never led by more than three at any point in the second period and weren't assured of their 25th win in 29 games until Virginia's Sammy Zeglinski missed an open three-pointer that could have tied it with six seconds left.
Forward Harrison Barnes then missed the first of a one-and-one free throw opportunity with 3.0 seconds left to give the home team another opportunity.
But the Tar Heels had three fouls to give in the remaining time and used two of the to leave the Cavaliers with only a desperation shot by Jontel Evans from midcourt that wasn't close.
"That was an extremely competitive, yet somewhat ugly basketball game," coach Roy Williams said. "You have to congratulate both teams' defense, because I thought both teams played so hard.
"It was a struggle for us to find a play to run or to find a shot that we could make."
NOTES, QUOTES
--Junior F John Henson recorded his 13th double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds in North Carolina's 54-51 win at Virginia on Feb. 25.
His defense also was instrumental in holding Virginia's Mike Scott to just six points. Scott was only 3-of-13 from the field and played only 22 minutes because of foul trouble.
Henson drew Scott's fourth foul with 12 minutes left, sending the Cavs' top scorer to the bench.
"Guarding him, he's going to hit his shots if you guard him, so the thing we had to do was get him into foul trouble," Henson said. "He can't be effective when he's not on the court."
--North Carolina went to the free throw line 23 times at Virginia, making 18. That was three times the number of attempts for the Cavaliers, who were 3-of-6 from the stripe.
The Tar Heels are shooting only 66.8 percent from the line for the season but have made 483 free throws in 29 games. That's 182 more than their opponents have even attempted.
In 14 ACC games, the Heels have made 218 free throws, four more than their opponents have attempted.
--Sophomore G Kendall Marshall had only six assists against Virginia, but that moved him to within three of tying the school single-season record held by Ed Cota. Marshall has 281. Cota had 284 in 1999-2000.
Marshall's career total is 511, which already is the 10th most in Carolina history.
QUOTE TO NOTE
"It helps a lot, especially with the tournament coming up." -- Senior F Tyler Zeller, on the impact of North Carolina's win at Virginia.
THIS WEEK'S GAMES
--vs. Maryland, Feb. 29
G Terrell Stoglin scored 20 points for the Terrapins when the two teams played on Feb. 4, but North Carolina got 22 points from F Tyler Zeller, 18 from F Harrison Barnes and a double-double (17 points, 12 rebounds) from F John Henson. G Pe'Shon Howard was 2-of-4 on three-pointers for Maryland in that game but has since been injured and is out for the season.
--at Duke, March 3
A three-pointer by Austin Rivers at the buzzer completed Duke's comeback and gave the Blue Devils an 85-84 victory back on Feb. 8 at Chapel Hill. Rivers led all scorers with 29 points, and F Mason Plumlee had 14 rebounds for the Blue Devils.
FUTURES MARKET
The backup point guard role still appears problematical. That was a role that starting shooting guard Dexter Strickland usually played in spelling Kendall Marshall. Since Strickland's season-ending injury, senior Justin Watts and freshman Stilman White have been used. But against Virginia, Watts played only three minutes with nothing but zeros to show for it, and White missed a three-point attempt and had two fouls in his two minutes.
PLAYER NOTES
--Sophomore F Harrison Barnes saw his streak of double-digit scoring efforts end at 11 games when he scored only seven points at Virginia. His season low is six against Miami on Jan. 10.
--Senior F Tyler Zeller scored 10 points against the Cavaliers, the 13th time in the last 14 games he has been in double figures.
