Tony Bennett notes UNC’s upset of Duke with Virginia to play Tar Heels in ACC Tournament
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NEW YORK — As North Carolina’s epic upset of Duke to close the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season reverberated across college basketball, Virginia coach Tony Bennett took notice, too.
“The way you saw Carolina play against Duke, I think they’re playing good basketball,” Bennett said late Wednesday night at Barclays Center. “They’re very talented, and it seems like they’re peaking at the right time.”
The Tar Heels (23-8) open the ACC Tournament against Virginia (19-12) in Thursday night’s last quarterfinal here, after Bennett’s team worked the late shift Wednesday night and scratched past Louisville 51-50.
Virginia became the first time in ACC Tournament history to win a game without connecting on a 3-pointer. The sixth-seeded Cavaliers missed all six of their shots from beyond the arc against 11th-seeded Louisville, relying instead on production from Jayden Gardner (17 points), Kihei Clark (15 points) and Reece Beekman (eight points, nine assists).
North Carolina returned to the Associated Press poll on Monday for the first time since mid-November, cracking the rankings at No. 25 after an absence of 13 weeks. The Tar Heels are coming off their party-crashing 94-81 defeat of rival Duke that spoiled Blue Devils icon Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
North Carolina got 20 or more points from four players in the same game for the first time in school history — Armando Bacot (23 points), Caleb Love (22 points), RJ Davis (21 points) and Brady Manek (20 points) — on the way to picking up its 11th victory during the last 13 games.
“It’s a great opportunity for us,” Bennett said, looking ahead to the ACC quarterfinals. “A great challenge to be as good as we can be in our way, and try and get it done.”
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Bacot dominated around the basket on Jan. 8 in Chapel Hill, in the Tar Heels’ only matchup of the regular season with Virginia. He piled up a monster output of 29 points and 22 rebounds, as North Carolina built a 25-point lead and won 74-58.
Now, 61 days later, North Carolina and Virginia will meet again. Bennett said the Cavaliers have grown across the two months since then.
“That’s what I like about this team,” he said late Wednesday night. “Individuals have improved and the team has improved. That means a lot to me because you want to be healthy and you want to be improved and playing good basketball at this time of the year, and I think these guys are doing that.
“This is an opportunity you want. It’s an important game for us. They all are. I hope we’ll show that we’re a better team, but it’ll take a good one for sure.”
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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC basketball: Tony Bennett sees Tar Heels peaking for ACC Tournament
