On a rainy and dreary night outside, the John Paul Jones Arena needed a pre-holiday spark. The Thanksgiving crowd was sparse and a shaky defensive start saw both UVa and Hampton scoring at better than a 50% clip. That’s when wings Joe Harris and Justin Anderson ignited the team and the building as the Hoos ran away to an easy 69-40 win.
“Early on, it was pretty frustrating especially when we had talked about it. When you see games like a Vermont team that is 1-4 and they go in and almost beat Duke at their place. This is nothing to take away from Hampton, but we … felt confident that we could come in and get the victory,” Harris said. “But we didn’t come out that way. We came out lackadaisical. We weren’t great defensively – they were getting some easy shots at the rim, our bigs didn’t do enough showing on ball screens, we weren’t filling gaps as guards. It was too much easy stuff early on.”
The game’s decisive stretch – a 23-0 Virginia surge that became 24-3 by halftime – started just after the 10:00 mark of the first half when Harris canned a 3-pointer to break a 16-16 stalemate. He wasn’t done. Far from it. Harris scored on a runner while being fouled and added the free throw for a tradtional 3-point play. Moments later, he had a steal and a layup before draining another long-range shot as he scored 11 of 14 points at one part of the run.
Harris was shooting as well as it sounds. He hit all 7 of his shots from the field and 2 of 3 free throws. By the time Harris scored on a backdoor layup at 16:46 of the second half, he led Hampton 20-19 in the scoring column. He ended up with 20 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals in just 20 minutes of action.
“I think early on [this season], at least the first couple of games, I wasn’t shooting with the same kind of confidence I typically do,” Harris said. “The past couple of games, I practiced and everything just felt fine.”
“He had a great rhythm and letting it fly,” Cav coach Tony Bennett said. “Some of those were a little bit contested too, but he moved hard without the ball and it seems like he’s getting his timing back and that was nice to see. Obviously he hit the threes, but I thought he did some other things well and I was happy to see that.”
Anderson was the other piece of the dynamic duo during the key half-ending burst. He hit a pair of 3-pointers and made 1 of 2 free throws on a 1-on-1 opportunity. Those plays represented the non-Harris portion of an 18-0 run that eventually ballooned the aforementioned numbers by intermission. He finished with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
Anderson’s biggest contribution went beyond those points, however, because he turned the tide defensively for Virginia first. The Pirates opened the game by making 5 of their first 7 shots, including 4 lay-ups. Much of that efficiency was keyed by the penetration of jet-quick Deron Powers, who had 3 lay-ups and an assist in those early stages. Once Anderson checked into the game, Virginia moved him over to Powers in a fire blanket strategy – cool him off quickly please.
“Your point of attack, I talk about this a lot, is so important for our defense. Last year, we could tell Jontel [Evans], hey go down the floor and bulldog a guy. And that’s important,” Bennett said. “He’s what we call a roadblock sometimes. Justin, when he gets low and wide and he’s engaged, he’s hard to get around. I thought that certainly helped us and he took that challenge on. Again the other guys started tightening up [too] and not stretching so much.”
“He knows that I’m going to take care of business. So he just told me take him and I knew what time it was from there,” Anderson said. “I love that [defensive stopper role]. It’s always been like that for me, especially when it comes to point guards. I love guarding point guards because they have the ball in their hands and I just use my length, spread out, and get low and try to contain them. It’s a challenge and I love challenges.”
While Anderson didn’t spend the rest of the night chasing Powers, those moments did change the tone defensively. After all, not only did UVa begin its 24-3 outburst shortly after that move, Hampton proceeded to struggle in a mighty way for essentially the remainder of the contest. For a period of close to 20 minutes (17:31), in fact, the Pirates managed just two field goals. Their shot quality changed dramatically as Virginia’s defense took control too. Early with Powers creating issues, Hampton got shots in the paint or clean looks on kickouts.
As the game progressed, the paint touches diminished, open looks were rare, and the shooting percentages plummeted. Before the Cavalier walk-ons played the final 3:30 (and Jeff Jones, son of the former coach, capped the scoring with a spin move in the post), the Pirates had just 30 points in 36 minutes. The visitors finished 17-of-52 shooting from the floor (32.7%), including 2 of 14 from 3-point range (14.3%). Only Dwight Meikle reached double figures with 12.
Hampton had 4 assists with 17 turnovers, while Virginia blocked 6 shots.
“Early the quickness that Powers showed us beating us off the ball screens … we were a step behind, we were stretched, they got right to the rim, and that concerned me,” Bennett said. “I thought we adjusted … but that was a concern to see us spread out like that and them knifing to the basket and getting to the lane. Once we settled in, we were better.”
The Hoos hope that defensive effort travels for the next phase of the Corpus Christi Challenge too. UVa faces SMU on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Texas.
