North Carolina's tourney hopes take hit in ACC quarters loss

GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina's already shaky NCAA tournament hopes were dealt a damaging blow Thursday night in a 68-59 loss to No. 13 Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals Thursday night.

Jayden Gardner had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Reece Beekman added 15 points, 5 assists and 5 steals for the second-seeded Cavaliers (24-6), who finally wrestled away control of the game with a 9-0 run in the final two minutes after the Tar Heels had cut a 10-point deficit to 57-55. Much of that production came at the foul line, where the Cavaliers made 9 of 10 as UNC finally ran out of gas.

R.J. Davis scored 24 points to lead the Tar Heels (20-13), who shot just 35.8% to lose for the second time in three meetings with the Cavaliers. UNC also continued a season-long trend of struggling to hit outside shots, making 8 of 27 3-point attempts.

Tar Heels big man Armando Bacot (four points, three rebounds) sat the final 10-plus minutes because of an ankle injury suffered in Wednesday's second-round win against Boston College.

This never looked anything like the team that made a magical run to last year's national championship game, then started the year with four starters back to earn a No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press preseason poll. Now the Tar Heels appear headed toward becoming the first AP preseason No. 1 to miss the tournament since its expansion to 64 teams in 1985.

«It's not a great feeling,» second-year head coach Hubert Davis said. «Not the expectations that we had coming into the year. It was definitely frustrating and disappointing, but one thing I can say about this group is we fight to the end.»

Added Davis: «I'm sad and disappointed for [the players] that we're in this position. Just