Virginia vs. UNC: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season

Just two days after suffering its first loss of the season, No. 3 Virginia bounced back in a big way with a 75-64 road win over No. 12 North Carolina.

The game was a tale of two halves for the Tar Heels offensively. Great passing led to easy buckets in the first half, as they made 14 of 27 field-goal attempts for a mark of 51.9 percent. However, things weren't nearly as easy in the second half, with the team combining to shoot just 11-of-29 (37.9 percent).

Brice Johnson had a strong effort for the home team, totaling 14 points with eight rebounds and three blocks. Unfortunately, he didn't get much help from his teammates.

Kennedy Meeks did have 11 points and seven rebounds while battling an illness, but his six turnovers were a big issue. Leading scorer Marcus Paige had 15 points in the loss, but a lot of those came after the game was out of reach.

Virginia utilized a much more balanced attack to dominate offensively, with four players scoring at least 13 points. Malcolm Brogdon led the way with 17, followed by Justin Anderson (16), London Perrantes (15) and Anthony Gill (13).

Anderson and Perrantes also combined for 13 assists in an efficient win for the Cavaliers.

Lauren Brownlow of Fox Sports broke down Virginia as a whole:

The Cavaliers remain alone in first place in the ACC with an 8-1 record, while the Tar Heels dropped to 7-3. Meanwhile, as one of the top teams in the nation, Virginia showed a lot of resolve, as Seth Davis of CBS Sports pointed out:

This theme of redemption was prevalent all around after both squads suffered devastating losses Saturday. North Carolina blew an 18-point second-half lead against Louisville before losing in overtime, causing head coach Roy Williams to question himself along with his team, via Jeff Greer of The Courier-Journal:

"

I hate to say this, but I have done a poor job of coaching. They wanted the basketball and were tougher about it than my team was and that's my fault. They have a great game plan, a lot of times it fits what I like to do, because it's an open court game, but today Rick did a much better job with his team than I did with my team.

"

Virginia also had a rough weekend that featured a home loss to Duke, which represented the team's first defeat of the season. On the plus side, some of the players were looking forward to getting right back onto the court.

“We get to worry about this less than if we had a week to just sit on it and think about this," Perrantes said after the game, via Zac Boyer of The Washington Times. "We don’t have any time. Tonight is the only time we can think about it, and we’ll just move on.”

Despite both teams coming in with similar circumstances, Virginia was the squad able to redeem itself Monday night.

It was UNC that got off to a strong start, though, thanks to some surprisingly efficient offense against one of the best defenses in the nation.

Jeff Borzello of ESPN noted the difference in post play between North Carolina and Duke:

Selfless play continued as the home team extended the lead, via ESPN's C.L. Brown:

However, Virginia was able to stay in contention and regain the lead as Anderson quickly put the Duke game behind him, as Mike Schmitz of DraftExpress described:

North Carolina took a 33-32 lead into halftime, but neither coach could have been pleased with his team's performance on defense, as Jerry Ratcliffe of The Daily Progress pointed out:

The defensive effort picked up for both sides in the second half, but Virginia was able to take a slight lead thanks to some more aggressive play by Perrantes. Ed Isaacson of NBA Draft Blog noted the impact this had:

As the second half progressed, the home crowd ensured that the score would remain close:

At least that was the case until Virginia started to truly squeeze the opposition on the defensive end to key a 13-2 run that broke the game wide open. Aaron Beard of The Associated Press chronicled one of the more critical moments:

The run snowballed until the score reached blowout proportions after such a competitive first half. Borzello summed up the end of the game with this tweet:

Although North Carolina was able to make a small run in the final minutes to cut an 18-point deficit to single digits, it was too little, too late as the Cavaliers pulled out the tough road win.

The difficult stretch for Virginia continues with a home game against No. 9 Louisville on Saturday night. The schedule eases up after this game, but the Cavaliers can't afford to take any of these unranked conference opponents lightly.

North Carolina kicks off a three-game road trip Saturday against Boston College, followed by a tilt against Pittsburgh and then a rivalry matchup against Duke. 

While the Tar Heels are obviously legitimate contenders in the ACC, they will need to remain consistent during this extended stretch away from home.

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