The loss to Duke continued to be on the Tar Heels’ minds before, during and after their 70-52 victory over Virginia.

Tyler Zeller said he wanted to personally bounce back after his part in the Tar Heels’ late-game demise Wednesday night. He succeeded with a 25-point, nine-rebound effort.

Carolina held a 10-point lead against Duke with two and a half minutes to go. This time, Virginia cut a 15-foot deficit to 11 points with the same amount of time left.

In a Carolina huddle, one player said to remember what happened Wednesday night but Coach Williams said “no, let’s play for today.”

Reserve Stilman White, who spelled Kendall Marshall for eight minutes, said after the game that the Heels handled the end of game better this time and that the Tar Heels still believe that, despite the loss, it’s obvious they are a better team than Duke.

It’s natural that the team is still thinking about that game and maybe it helped them focus on doing the right things this time but the Heels have to put that Duke loss behind them.

For more on the Virginia game, please click here.