One of the things about doing this job is that on occasion, you notice some random thing and scribble it down somewhere just in case you need it.

For example, at 8:07 p.m., with more than 50 minutes left on the pre-game clock Wednesday night in Charlottesville, I had one of those moments.

Tomas Woldetensae was as deep in the right corner as possible and as far over as possible, too. It made the angle on his 3-point attempt as difficult as it could get, given the odd path to the rim. He rose, contorted his body just a bit, fired, and drained the shot before landing and heading immediately back to the locker room with his teammates.

Though he didn’t have the kind of night against Notre Dame for such a scene-setter be used, that he was absent from my one pre-game scribble in Chapel Hill made the moment all the more interesting.

First it was Jay Huff. And then Kihei Clark and Mamadi Diakite. And then Casey Morsell and Kody Stattmann. At roughly 7:15 p.m. Saturday night, that group went through and one after the other buried 3 after 3 after 3.

But where was Woldetensae, the center of UVa's improved outside shooting? I honestly can’t say for sure. I’m reasonably sure he was the next shooter and that he missed.

Of course, that wasn’t the case on UVa’s final shot of the evening.

For the sixth time in 12 attempts, the junior college transfer banged home a 3-pointer, perhaps the biggest one of his life to this point, with 0.8 seconds left to play.

His pump fake and side step of Leaky Black was textbook, and his shot pushed UVa past UNC 64-62. It gave the Wahoos (17-7, 9-5 ACC) a six-game winning streak over the Heels and helped them complete their first regular-season sweep of Carolina in nearly two decades.

But in order to finish off the program's first back-to-back set of wins in the Dean Smith Center, the Cavaliers needed a lot more than just Woldetensae’s shooting.

It took a key drive and dish by Clark on the final play to set things up. Diakite’s and-1 minutes earlier proved massive as well.

“I trust Kihei,” Diakite said of Clark’s assist. “I know Tomas has done it in many games this year and he’s getting so much better, so I have my trust in him too. So, when he shot it, I was actually right underneath the basket and I saw it going in. So, no words to say about that.”

To Tony Bennett, the end was just another example of the small margin for error his team is playing with this year and the reality of having to make plays in big spots in order to get Ws.

With his team up two and the clock ticking down, Woldetensae had just committed the worst sin in basketball, putting a 3-point shooter on the free-throw line. But the way he responded was as phenomenal as that play seemed backbreaking.

“That’s a deflating moment,” Bennett said. “But he certainly stepped up…For Kihei to get down the floor to find him and then Tomas to stick it, that was as good as it gets. That was an exciting moment for us for sure, because we’ve been on the other end of that.

“There’s such a small margin between winning and losing,” he added. “Carolina, I feel for them in that regard, because they’ve been close and they’ve been hit by the injury bug in a way that a lot of teams haven’t. I’m sure they’re battling the ups and downs. We’ve been so close in every game and it was an important game for us. Thankful for how our guys responded and I thought we made plays down the stretch, as they did too.”

The moment right after Woldetensae’s dagger, the UVa bench went understandably bananas.

Diakite rushed over and hoisted Woldetensae into the air. Asked later what he said, the senior forward smiled. “I was just happy,” he recalled. “I was just screaming nonsense. I just held him up and that’s just it. I was just happy. He acted like a leader. He fouled a guy who went to line, made three of them, we’re down. Ten seconds to go and the guy’s able to hit a big shot…You have to have an unstoppable mindset in order to do that. I think he was cold today for that.”

Having someone shooting it as well as Woldetensae has lately changes things significantly for UVa.

“Both teams, Carolina and us, our inconsistency shooting the ball has cost us at times and it’s been hard to overcome,” Bennett explained. “So, when all of a sudden you get that? I thought we left one on the board at Louisville when he shot it so well and we had some chances and left some points out there.

“But to capitalize on 6-for-10, and for us a 9-for-21, those are numbers we’re not used to seeing,” he added. “It just opens it up a bit inside for the interior players. Casey joined, he had a couple of 3s and Kody did a good job. It just gives you the balance that you need to be an efficient, quality offensive basketball team. You have to hit a few outside shots and go inside and touch the paint. That gives us the balance that we’re desperate for.”

It also helped the Wahoos that their bench came up big, outscoring UNC’s 17-0.

“Francisco [Caffaro] played real well for us, Kody did, and Casey did,” Bennett said. “They gave us those lifts that, again, we haven’t had, just like we haven’t shot [well]. To come in here—forget about records—to beat them you need some things to happen. You need to shoot it well, you need to get more people playing well. That was perfect timing. I hope we can capitalize on that. But bench scoring, 3-point shooting, free throws, all of those things are huge for us.”

But the night really did belong to No. 53, a player the rest of the league is still getting used to having to learn about. For the Cavaliers, they’re still growing accustomed to watching Woldetensae do what he does.

“He’s really improved,” Bennett said. “If you talk to him and you’re around him, he’s a very steady, calm person. He’s unaffected. I don’t know if because he didn’t grow up here and he doesn’t understand ‘This is Carolina, this is the ACC’ but he just plays. He’s real hard and critical on himself. He just works hard on his shot, he’s getting more comfortable where the shots come, and I thought he got some really good screens again tonight and guys found him. He’s a bit of a streaky shooter, so when he gets his rhythm and his timing, we want to try and find him. To do that, in that setting, that was big time.”

It was also another case of UVa making plays late to secure a victory. While it’s never good to foul in that situation, the execution on the ensuing offensive possession was flawless. That was in stark contrast with where things were about a month ago, when the Hoos were losing ACC games they either led or were tied in at the final media timeout. The Hoos have won five of their last six because of their play late in games.

That shift, Diakite believes, has a clear reason.

“Ownership,” he said. “Learning from mistakes. Moving on, not worrying about the past and keep [pushing] forward. We might be getting into this type of situation in the future but how can we separate ourselves from the other teams? By just keep going. Don’t think. Just play.”

And no one exemplified that quite like Woldetensae, who has quickly become one of the league’s most dangerous shooters. His response to his big mistake spoke volumes, keeping UVa’s tournament hopes very much alive and giving fans a play they won’t soon forget.

“He had his chance,” Bennett said simply, “and he answered.”

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