Virginia needed a second half surge for the second straight game to shake an ACC opponent, but the Cavaliers once again delivered. After outscoring Georgia Tech 27-4 in the final 14 minutes in Atlanta on Saturday, the Hoos used a 17-6 run over seven minutes Monday to knock off Maryland at the John Paul Jones Arena, 61-53.
UVa won its eight consecutive game in the process, its longest ACC streak since the 1982-83 season. The Cavs have also won 15 straight league games at home.
“It is good to get a win, however it was,” Wahoo coach Tony Bennett said. “Maryland has been playing good basketball. They have won three of their last four. I respect the job Coach Turgeon does and I respect their talent. I watched them warm up and told our guys ‘They are ready, I can see it in their eyes and I hope you’re ready too.’ We needed this home crowd energy. This was a grind-out game and you need to play in those games.”
Near the midway point of the second half, it looked like Virginia needed a spark to try to fight off a feisty Maryland group. The score stood at 37-35 in UVa’s favor with 10:50 remaining, but the hosts couldn’t seem to get themselves going consistently enough to secure any momentum. In fact, their biggest lead of the game up until that point had been four points and they trailed for much of the first half. Then the Hoos got exactly what they needed with two signature plays in sequence from Justin Anderson and Joe Harris.
Anderson’s moment came on the defensive end with one of his soaring blocks from behind the shooter. UVa’s Malcolm Brogdon attacked the basket and tried to get a shot up in the lane, but Nick Faust got a piece of it and that led to a run-out break for Maryland. The Terps’ Roddy Peters attacked down the left side, but Anderson began his defensive retreat in a diagonal line and the hometown fans and players could sense him sizing up the shot. When Peters put the ball up, Anderson pinned it viciously to the glass and came down with the defensive rebound before it went out of bounds too.
“I was next to it and I knew he was going to get it. A lot of the time, we just step aside and wait. We just watch him do it and get ready for it coming off the backboard,” Brogdon said. “We love it just as much as the fans do. We can’t celebrate when we’re on the court, but we love it just as much as they do for sure.”
Indeed, the block sent the JPJ fans into a roar and triggered a fastbreak in the other direction. That’s where Harris sent the crowd into a frenzy when he buried a 3-pointer from the right side. Harris took the pass from Teven Jones, sized it up, and knocked down an uncontested look for a 40-35 lead. That shot was part of a 17-6 burst over 7:02. While that five-point edge represented Virginia’s largest lead of the game at the time, the lead fell below that mark just once more the rest of the way when Maryland cut it to 54-50 with 2:11 to play.
Harris said he was hoping to get the ball at the arc as he crossed halfcourt and Jones delivered.
“I was hoping I was going to get it. I was running down and Teven and I kind of made eye contact and he kicked it ahead. Nobody came out on me so I mean I had room and rhythm. I was feeling pretty confident at that point with my shot so I let it go,” Harris said. “I was running down and I was hoping nobody came out at me and nobody did. So I just let it go.”
That shot came during a big second half for Harris. He finished with 19 points and 4 assists with 16 of those points coming after intermission. The always unselfish Harris kicked it up a notch in the second half after he passed up a shot in the first half that led to a turnover on a tough-to-handle pass to the interior. Bennett encouraged the team to really set some good screens at halftime in order to help Harris get it going on offense. The Wahoos did and he used the added attention to knock down several key shots.
The first came at the 16:28 mark when he popped out to the left wing and canned a 3-pointer when Akil Mitchell spotted him after an offensive rebound. That gave Virginia a 30-29 lead. The hosts never trailed again after that basket, though the Terps did get it tied at 35-35 along the way. Moments later at 15:38, Harris hit another triple and it was clear that he was finding a rhythm. He added the aforementioned trey in transition later and came through with 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch too. With the big shooting night, Harris moved into a second-place tie on the program’s all-time 3-pointer list as he matched Harold Deane’s 237 from 1994-1997. He also tied Travis Watson for 14th on the all-time scoring list with 1,546 points.
“Joe was really good in the second half. He hunted down shots,” Bennett said. “This is the sign of a mature player – one who can be efficient and senses when we need it. Joe wants to win. He will do whatever it takes to win. He is an efficient player and senses when he needs to get going and hit shots. He is such a team-oriented guy that he is okay being the second or third option when he needs to be. He understands that he draws attention to let other players get going, but then also has the ability to elevate his game. That is a rare player and I think it will work well for him beyond college.”
Harris was not the only one to come through on offense. Brogdon again hit double figures – he’s done that in every ACC game – with 14 points. Mitchell had one of his best offensive games of the season too with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He added 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal too. That moved Mitchell into 12th place on UVa’s all-time rebounding list. He passed Kenny Turner’s 706 from 1988-1991. The Hoos got 4 points each from Mike Tobey, London Perrantes, and Anderson too.
It’s that balanced and diverse attack that makes UVa a handful to deal with defensively. Teams have to pick what to focus on and they have to do it for 40 minutes against a rotating cast of characters. Overall that means Virginia’s defense sets the tone while the offense really helps wear down the opponents.
So far, that’s been a recipe for success. The Cavaliers, now 20-5 on the year, secured their third straight 20-win season, the first time since 1991-93 that has happened.
“We still have six games left [in the regular season] or something like that so still a lot of work to do,” Mitchell said. “We remember what it was like to get here last year and take that slide down the stretch last year. Absolutely not, we won’t do that again. I refuse. We’re just going to grind it out and take it one game at a time.”
