An undersized Virginia men's basketball team constantly fought foul trouble and saw its best scorer suffer his worst performance of the season Saturday, yet it fell one shot short of taking No. 7 North Carolina to overtime.
Trailing by three with six seconds left, senior guard Sammy Zeglinski slid into the corner for an open three-pointer only to watch his attempt draw iron. Virginia (21-7, 8-6 ACC) had 2.7 seconds for one last attempt after Tar Heels sophomore forward Harrison Barnes missed the front end of a one-and-one, but junior guard Jontel Evans' desperation heave clanked off the top of the backboard for a 54-51 loss at home.
"I got a good look; I just couldn't get it to fall," Zeglinski said. "It was tough. I thought we played hard, and we definitely had a chance to pull it out in the end. We just couldn't knock down that shot to get us over the hump."
Senior forward Tyler Zeller gave North Carolina (25-4, 12-2 ACC) its most pivotal basket when he dunked as the shot clock expired, grabbing a three-point advantage with 13.3 seconds remaining. Zeller's slam highlighted his 20-point, six-rebound night and continued his season-long dominance of the Cavaliers' frontcourt. Two weeks ago at Chapel Hill, Zeller pounded Virginia inside to post 25 points, and he followed a similar formula Saturday while