Updated 8:12 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — North Carolina improvised throughout its 54-51 victory against Virginia on Saturday, and at no time did the Tar Heels improvise more than on what turned out to be their most important offensive play of the game.

Leading by one with less than a minute to play, and with the crowd at the John Paul Jones Arena at its loudest, UNC coach Roy Williams called a play in which senior forward Tyler Zeller was supposed to act as a screener. Instead, Zeller caught a pass from Kendall Marshall, faked a shot and drove the lane for a decisive one-handed dunk.

Three Points from State's 61-60 loss to the Cavaliers on Saturday.

1) Effort vs. execution

Effort was a problem for N.C. State before coach Mark Gottfried was hired. "Was" as in past tense and Saturday's 61-60 loss to Virginia is the latest proof of how far a State team, made up of essentially the same players as a year ago, has come on the effort front.

Any of Rich Howell's nine offensive rebounds, or the three jump-ball tie-ups on Virginia's end of the floor he caused, qualify as proof, but there's also the matter of State's defensive effort as a team in the second half.

RALEIGH — N.C. State made one 3-pointer in the final minute of Saturday's game against Virginia. It needed one more.

Lorenzo Brown's 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer and Virginia escaped with a 61-60 road win over the Wolfpack at the RBC Center.

Scott Wood's 3-pointer from the left corner with 46.3 seconds left gave State (15-7, 4-3 ACC) a chance to complete a 10-point comeback in the second half against one of the best defensive teams in the country.

DURHAM – Virginia had two chances to send Thursday’s game against Duke to overtime, missing two open 3-pointers in the final seconds to allow the Blue Devils to hold on for a 61-58 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

With the way the Blue Devils clamped down on the Cavaliers over the previous 19:50 of the second half and asserted itself on the defensive end, maybe it was fate’s way of winking at the oft-maligned Duke defense for a job well done.

The Blue Devils may not have challenged Virginia’s final two opportunities the way they wanted, but they did hold the Cavaliers to 29.4 percent shooting after halftime while forcing Virginia to miss all 11 of its 3-point attempts.

Following a 77-66 victory over Virginia in its ACC opener, Duke women's basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie said the No. 7 Blue Devils are "approaching dangerous."

McCallie, in her fifth season, said the Devils (10-2, 1-0 ACC) faced stiff non-conference competition to open the season and their schedule has prepared the young team for conference play. With four freshmen and five sophomores who receive the majority of playing time, the Devils are building toward the consistency that would make them a dangerous team later in the season.

Their schedule has helped.

"This team's been to Provo," McCallie said. "This team's been to Philly. This team's been to Lexington. This team has been absolutely everywhere, and I think they should have great comfort in playing with each other and knowing that they have done what most have not done."

DURHAM – A few glitches on offense slowed the Duke women's basketball team in its ACC opener on Monday, but the No. 7 Blue Devils held off Virginia 77-66 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Devils put aside 14 first-half turnovers – 25 total – and demonstrated a better grasp of coach Joanne P. McCallie’s motion offense against an alert 2-3 defensive zone. Led by sophomore point guard Chelsea Gray, they distributed the basketball with more proficiency and pulled away from the Cavaliers early in the second half.

N.C. State's comeback win over Maryland puts the Wolfpack "very, very high" on the Belk Bowl's wish list, bowl president Will Webb said Sunday.

The bowl game in Charlotte, which will be played Dec. 27 (8 p.m., ESPN) at Bank of America Stadium, has to wait until after the ACC title game on Saturday to make its selection, but the Wolfpack is among its top options.

Virginia and Wake Forest are also possibilities from the ACC, Webb said, with West Virginia (8-3), Louisville (7-5) and Rutgers (8-4) from the Big East side of the equation.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Duke has won just two football games in November since 2004. 

Well aware of that history, the Blue Devils entered Saturday's game with hopes of changing such a dreary statistic, looking for a win over one of the two teams it had defeated in that time. They had eked by Virginia in three consecutive games.

But the Cavaliers (7-3, 4-2 ACC) would not cooperate this time, ending that losing streak with a  31-21 victory over the Devils (3-7, 1-5) at Scott Stadium before an announced crowd of 45,733. 

“We left way too many plays on the field to win a ballgame,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “When you do that it’s going to slip through your fingers. It’s kind of simple as that.”

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Faced with a must-win situation, N.C. State found a way to beat Virginia on the road on Saturday.

David Amerson's interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter sealed a 28-14 win for the Wolfpack which needs to finish the second half of the season with a flurry.

CHARLOTTE – North Carolina received 57 of a possible 59 first-place votes to finish atop the ACC media poll released Wednesday at the conference’s Operation Basketball media event.

The Tar Heels return all five starters, including preseason ACC player of the year selection Harrison Barnes, from a team that finished 29-8, reached an NCAA regional final and won first place in the ACC with a 14-2 conference record last season.

Duke was picked second in the poll, followed by Florida State, Virginia, Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson. N.C. State was selected to finish eighth, with Maryland, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College closing out the poll.