Virginia was putting on a dunk show.
There's really no other way to call it that than in its most literal terms. The Cavaliers entered this game as they do most games against high-tempo North Carolina. The Tar Heels average nearly 85 points per game, but it was UVa putting on the show Saturday.
The first was a three-man weave play from Kyle Guy to Devon Hall to a wide-open and cutting Mamadi Diakite. Then there was a Diakite steal and dunk 10 seconds later. Nigel Johnson would later have his own powerful breakaway dunk. Hall would do it after him. Then Jack Salt added to it with an and-one dunk.
And that was just the first half.
Virginia came into this season unranked and somewhat unheralded. The first 15 games have been a lesson to everyone watching that the Cavaliers are one of the best and deepest teams around. The No. 8 Cavaliers (14-1, 3-0 ACC) beat the defending national champion Tar Heels, 61-49, on Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.
Hall led all UVa scorers with 16 points. He had a stretch of five-straight points in the first half to tie the game, then he hit two 3-pointers in a row from the corner early in the second half to put Virginia up by 10 points.
Joel Berry had an inefficient 17 points for UNC.
Tony Bennett isn’t interested, or at least not publically interested, in statement wins. The case could easily be made that beating rival Virginia Tech on the road by 26 points is a statement. Beating the class of college basketball three days later has a similar ring to it.
Virginia’s interior defense was stellar. The Cavaliers forced 19 turnovers while only allowing 14 points in the paint, a forte of a long and athletic Tar Heels team. Three times in the second half, UNC had a shot clock violation. The crowd enjoyed that almost as much as they enjoyed chanting “air ball” for a late second-half free throw miss by Luke Maye.
But the flashiest part of Saturday was the dunks, because they just kept coming. After Salt ended the first half with one, he slammed one home on the first offensive play for UVa in the second stanza.
Then the biggest play of the day came from De’Andre Hunter. He might be Virginia’s most athletic, if-not perfectly polished player offensively. He picked up a loose ball, realized he was somewhat open and drove to the basket for a ferocious one-handed dunk.
In total, Virginia had eight dunks, the final by Wilkins to re-establish a 10-point lead with five minutes to play. On the other end, the Cavaliers forced another turnover. North Carolina called a timeout. They’d cut the lead to six, only to immediately stumble and stagger. There was no run, no comeback, to be had.
And the crowd, never sick of a seeing a play repeat itself all afternoon, gave a standing ovation. This group, unheralded no longer, was just showing off.