UNC’s NCAA hopes take hit in ACC quarters loss

GREENSBORO, N.C.– North Carolina’s currently unstable NCAA tournament hopes were dealt a damaging blow Thursday night in a 68-59 loss to No. 13 Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals Thursday night.Jayden Gardner had

17 points and 10 rebounds, and Reece Beekman included 15 points, 5 assists and 5 steals for the second-seeded Cavaliers (24-6), who finally wrestled away control of the game with a 9-0 run in the final 2 minutes after the Tar Heels had actually cut a 10-point deficit to 57-55. Much of that production came at the nasty line, where the Cavaliers made 9 of 10 as UNC finally lacked gas.R.J.

Davis scored 24 points to lead the Tar Heels (20-13), who shot simply 35.8% to lose for the 2nd time in 3 conferences with the Cavaliers. UNC also continued a season-long trend of having a hard time to strike outdoors shots, making 8 of 27 3-point attempts.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Tar Heels

big guy Armando

Bacot(four points, 3 rebounds )sat the final 10-plus minutes since of an ankle injury suffered in Wednesday’s second-round win against Boston College.This never ever looked anything like the team that made a wonderful run

to last year’s championship game game, then began the year with 4 starters back to make a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press preseason survey. Now the Tar Heels appear headed towards becoming the very first AP preseason No. 1 to miss out on the tournament because NC State in 1974-75.”It’s not a fantastic feeling,”second-year head coach Hubert Davis stated.

“Not the expectations that we had entering the year. It was definitely aggravating and disappointing, however one thing I can say about this group is we combat to the end.”Added Davis:”I’m unfortunate and dissatisfied for [the players] that we remain in this position

. Just very sad for them.”UNC went into Thursday’s quarterfinal with a 1-8 record in the Quadrant 1 games that top an NCAA competition résumé, with the only win coming at house versus the Cavaliers on Feb. 25– which one hovering on the line to fall into Quadrant 2 territory.Davis, when asked if he had a”pitch “for why his team ought to get a tournament quote, said he wasn’t thinking about that.

“Our record is our record, “Davis stated. “And I know that, I believe regardless of our record, I think we have revealed throughout the whole year that we can contend and play and beat anybody in the country. But it’s just, I understand we played a truly difficult out-of-conference schedule, I understand that the ACC for whatever reason is undervalued as one of the elite, if not the elite, conferences in college basketball. … But at the end of the day, we had opportunities and for eight or nine of the 13 losses we had, we were up in the second half. And so, we had our opportunities.”ESPN Statistics & Info and The Associated Press added to this report.