North Carolina’s defense held Virginia to shooting only 19 percent in the first half as the Tar Heels followed up their regular season-ending win over Duke with an impressive 63-43 victory in their first game of the ACC Tournament. (3/10)

The Heels, led by Brady Manek’s 21 points, advance to the semi-finals against Virginia Tech, which upset Notre Dame earlier.

“Brady was on point tonight… He gave us a spark,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “But our defense was spectacular. Every shot Virginia took was contested… and we were able to get out in transition.”

Six minutes into the game, Carolina took the lead 9-7 on a top-of-the-key three from Manek at the end of the shot clock. After Virginia tied it a 9-9, Manek once again drilled a three to give Carolina the lead for good at 12-9 with 12:43 still left in the first half.

The basket started a 24-4 run that saw the Heels take a 33-13 halftime lead. Except for Manek, who outscored the Cavs 19-13 in the first half, the Tar Heels shot poorly. But Virginia shot even worst, hitting just five of 27 shots in the first half or less than 19 percent. It was the lowest scoring tournament half in the shot-clock era.

In the second half, the Cavaliers shot better (ending the game at 34.7 percent) but still only got as close as 18 points while the Tar Heels worked the lead up to as many as 24 points several times.

After a Leaky Black steal, Carolina’s Caleb Love popped in an open three in transition to give the Heels a 46-22 lead with 12:49 left in the game.

In a surprise move, Coach Davis put the much taller Black on Virginia point guard Kihei Clark. With a 10-inch height advantage, Clark, who makes the offense run, could never get anything going. Clark missed all four of his shots in the first half, finishing with just seven points, and he turned the ball over three times.

Coach Davis said that as the season went on, Clark had become the Cavaliers’ go-to guy. “I thought in order for them to win, they had to have a big scoring game from him,” Coach Davis said in making the decision to put his best defender on him.

The Tar Heels, who substituted more freely than against Duke when Coach Davis didn’t sub at all in the second half, milked the clock offensively over the last seven-plus minutes to settle for the 20-point victory.

Having to play in 24 hours, and perhaps again in 48 hours, Coach Davis wanted to give the starters some rest and the subs got some good minutes, with Puff Johnson and Justin McKoy each getting 17 minutes of playing time.

Historically, the second half highlight came with less than four minutes to go when R.J. Davis dished to Armando Bacot who dunked it for his 10th point of the game, giving him the most double-doubles in a season in Carolina history. In addition to his 10 points, he hauled in 11 rebounds.

Love was the third Tar Heel in double figures with 10 points but he shot only two of 10 from the field.

Carolina, now 24-8 overall, play against Virginia Tech at about 9:30 p.m. Friday.

Virginia, led by Jayden Gardner’s 17 points, fell to 19-13 and likely played its last game of the season, unless the Cavs get an NIT bid.

For a box score and more on the game, please click here.