North Carolina could not overcome a cold shooting effort in a 60-48 loss to Virginia Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va.
It was the seventh straight loss in the series for the Tar Heels (12-7, 7-5 ACC), which is the longest since losing eight straight when it first began in 1911. It was also the fourth straight time UNC did not score more than 50 points at UVA. The Cavaliers (15-3, 11-1) now focus on Monday's showdown with Florida State for first place in the conference.
Virginia was listed as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA's first tournament reveal on Saturday, which is why Carolina really could have used the win. It's running out of opportunities to get a marquee victory against a Quad I opponent. The league announced Tuesday's game against Virginia Tech will be postponed, due to a positive test within the Hokies' program.
Unless the league can shuffle the schedule to get the Heels a weekday opponent, it will have another week off before facing Louisville at home next Saturday.
UNC proved Saturday it would rather be playing games than having time off. The week off between its win at Duke and playing UVA was its own doing. Monday's game against Miami was postponed after UNC players and team managers attended a social gathering maskless.
The Heels never got into much of an offensive rhythm against the Cavaliers. They fell behind 21-4 at the start, making just 2 of 15 shots. And this was one game where its offensive rebounding could not make up for their misses.
UNC was led by a career-high nine points from reserve Walker Kessler off the bench. Kerwin Walton added eight points for the Heels. Caleb Love, who was the ACC's freshman of the week after scoring 25 points at Duke, was limited to just four points.
