Malcolm Brogdon said that he had never made a game-winning shot like that before. Coach Tony Bennett said Virginia never scores on that play in practice. But Brogdon came through when it mattered most as he drained a long 3-pointer that left just .4 seconds on the clock at Pittsburgh on Super Bowl Sunday. That clutch shot propelled UVa to a 48-45 win, 8-1 in the ACC, and likely into the national rankings. The Panthers entered the game ranked No. 18 in the polls.
“It’s funny we run it a lot in practice, but we never make it in practice,” Bennett said. “But I would rather make it the game than in practice.”
It in this case was a play designed to take advantage of Joe Harris as a decoy. The Hoos inbounded the ball with 9.1 seconds to go on the other end of the court. Frshman point guard London Perrantes eased the ball up the right side of the floor while the Cavs overloaded the left side with the other four players. Virginia then sent Harris off a series of screens followed by Brogdon. When the defense shifted with Harris and Pittsburgh’s Cameron Wright got caught in the wash of players, Brogdon popped free and let the long bomb fly. It barely moved the net as it sent the Cavaliers into celebration mode with less than one second to go.
“We run it in practice almost every day. We never thought we’d run it because no one ever makes the shot. When Malcolm came around and knocked it down, we were all like, ‘What? I guess the play does work!'” Perrantes said. “We knew he was going to be given an open shot. He works so hard for moments like that.”
“It’s basically a play for me to come up and shoot the three. We executed it really well,” Brogdon said. “I haven’t hit it one time in practice all year. We’ve been practicing it all the time and I hit it today.”
That capped off another strong afternoon for Brogdon, who scored in double figures for the ninth straight game. He posted a game-high 16 points to go with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 0 turnovers. Brogdon made 6 of 12 shots, including the dagger just before the buzzer. Brogdon is averaging 15.2 points on 51.0% shooting in ACC play.
The Hoos also got a big day from Akil Mitchell, who notched his second double-double of the season. The other came in the road win at Florida State. Against Pitt, Mitchell recorded 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting and added a game-high 12 rebounds. He also had 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 blocked shot. Mitchell is averaging 7.8 points and 8.6 rebounds in league play.
Harris rounded out the balanced offensive attack with 11 points despite a tough shooting day. He made just 4 of 12 shots and 1 of 4 free throws. Still, Harris added 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 blocked shot (a key one at the rim in the final five minutes).
“Congratulations to Virginia. It wasn’t a good week for us; we simply didn’t get it done. We shot 31% and were outrebounded, which are things we build our program on and simply didn’t get it done,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “[Malcolm Brogdon] hit a good shot. It was a deep shot, it was a deep three. We could have guarded it better, but we didn’t. And we give him credit. He raised up and shot it from about 25 feet. But I think down the stretch, and throughout the game, we’ve got to do a better job of executing offensively and defensively. We talk about the little things. This is a one possession game and we knew it would be a low possession game and teams would be taking guarded shots for most of the game, and that’s what it was.”
Indeed, as one would expect from a game that finished in the forties for both teams, defense was the featured element of the day. The Cavaliers finished at just 40.4% shooting (19 of 47), while the Panthers ened up at 31.9% (15 of 47). Neither team picked up many easy points either with both teams scoring 6 fastbreak points and Pitt holding a 9-8 edge in second-chance points.
Much like Harris, Pittsburgh’s leading scorer Lamar Patterson found little room to operate. He tallied just 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting and added 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Center Talib Zanna made just 1 of 3 shots for 2 points and 3 boards. Only Jamel Artis joined Patterson in double figures with 11 points. He missed a potential go-ahead putback in the final 15 seconds.
In other words, players on both teams spent a lot of the day trying to score on contested shots or in traffic.
“We were talking the whole game about how much fun this was. It’s like playing ourselves. They lock up on defense. A lot of their defensive stuff is kind of the way we run it,” Mitchell said. “It’s going to be a battle for the ages for the next couple of years.”
The first round of this new ACC pairing definitely fell into the “battle” category as the two teams met for the first time since 1990. Defeating a rugged and ranked team on the road likely will push the Cavaliers into the top 25 in the national polls this week, but the Wahoos weren’t interested in dwelling on that fact. They just want to stay focused on the next game and playing quality basketball. Boston College is up next with a 7 p.m. game scheduled for Wednesday at the John Paul Jones Arena.
“We just heard [Pitt] has only lost 24 games here, ever. People want to call this a statement game. This was a big win,” Mitchell said. “We’re just moving along in our conference and we’re just going to keep rolling. Like I’ve been saying all season, it is just one game at a time. I think if we stay focused, we’ll keep getting better.”
“This doesn’t make our season, this doesn’t break our season,” Bennett said. “We talked about this in the locker room before, dwell on what’s right and excellent. For us what is right and excellent in our play is transition defense. We couldn’t let the crowd get going, we couldn’t let Pitt get going. We know we would have a chance if we could do those things. We had to almost be air tight. We talked about being so sound, but doing it our way. Not worried about the outcome, but plugging along possession by possession.”
HUGH WIN! WA-HOO-WA!!