NEW YORK – In a Sweet Sixteen game by name only, two of the nation’s elite teams dueled for 40 minutes Friday night in a battle fitting of Madison Square Garden. In the end, the final scale tipped in favor of Michigan State as it eliminated Virginia from the NCAA Tournament, 61-59.
No one in orange and blue wanted it to end, but despite a heavy Wahoo presence in New York and a gallant effort, it did.
“It stings now and it feels empty, and it’s a team you don’t want the season to end because you don’t want to stop coaching them, but I thank God for the opportunity to work with these guys, and they should hold their head high, and they are what’s right about the game of college basketball,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said.
The teams tangoed throughout as they swapped scoring surges from beginning to end. As a result, the two-point margin looked just as close on paper. Michigan State made 21 of 47 shots (44.7%), 5 of 14 3-pointers (35.7%), and 14 of 18 free throws (77.8%) to go with 32 rebounds, 13 assists, 4 blocked shots, and 5 steals. The Spartans had 10 turnovers. On the other side of the ledger, Virginia made 20 of 57 shots (35.1%), 6 of 18 3-pointers (33.3%), and 13 of 17 free throws (76.5%) to go with 10 assists, 4 blocked shots, and 5 steals. The Hoos had 6 turnovers.
Looking at such an evenly matched game, it was no surprise when the teams entered the final 1:45 tied at 51-51. Virginia’s Justin Anderson had just hit a corner 3-pointer with 1:49 to go to force a stalemate for the seventh time in the contest, but unlike many of UVa’s foes this season, Michigan State had an answer.
On their next possession, the Spartans used 6’10” center Adreian Payne on back-to-back screen-and-pop actions to create just enough space for the senior to get a look at the rim. He fired away with confidence and the shot proved pure as it splashed through the net. That made it 54-51 and when the Cavaliers came up short on the next possession, the Spartans took the reins for the final stretch. Payne delivered again, though this time he drew the defense and found Branden Dawson with a little lob that led to a dunk. Now down 56-51, UVa did not go away quietly as Joe Harris rolled a shot around the rim and in for a 3-pointer with 39.5 seconds to go. Then after exchanging free throws, Malcolm Brogdon nailed a 3-pointer too to get the Cavs to 60-59 and 1.4 seconds left. After Gary Harris made a free throw and then missed the second on purpose, Anderson’s final heave from beyond midcourt fell short to end the showdown in the Big Apple.
“I didn’t really think I was going to get the shot. It was sort of an option play,” Payne said of the 3-pointer that broke a tie for the final time. “I think it was Keith [Appling] that came off of it. He read it, and it was either he could drive to the basket or hit the guy in the corner or you got the throw back. And he hit the throw back and that was me, so I was wide open. So I tried to step up and knock it down.”
Payne and Dawson lifted the Spartans throughout the night not just in the final two minutes with some clutch plays. Payne finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocked shots, and 1 steal. Dawson poured in a game-high 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting to go with 10 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. The duo’s ability to face the basket and make long-range shots in the case of Payne helped space out the Pack-Line too.
Dawson, in particular, proved to be a matchup problem and when Anthony Gill hurt his ankle in the second half, the Hoos spent long stretches with either Anderson or Evan Nolte at the other forward spot.
“Dawson makes all the difference; he did today,” Bennett said. “He was a matchup problem for us. That’s where Anthony, I think had he been healthy, could have been better on him. I’m not saying he would have shut him down, but we would get a little more punch offensively with that, but he really – he was good.”
The Cavaliers countered with a big night from their starting perimeter players.
Harris and Brogdon each recorded 17 points and 3 assists to lead the way. Both had huge second half efforts too. Harris made 4 of 7 shots after halftime including that rim-hugging 3-pointer in the final minute. He scored in double figures for the 94th time in 135 career games and moved into 11th place on Virginia’s career scoring list (1,698 points). Brogdon, meanwhile, attacked the basket and racked up steals in the second half to earn trips to the free throw line. He made 7 of 8 shots at the stripe to get to his 29th double-digit scoring night of the season. Freshman London Perrantes added 7 points and 4 assists to the backcourt production too.
That trio helped Virginia rally from a halftime deficit with 11 of the team’s first 13 points after intermission. Perrantes scored on an offensive rebound to give the Hoos a 40-36 lead near the midway point of the second half, but they couldn’t pull away from the Spartans as they rallied to retake the lead. That set up the late fireworks and MSU prevailed with just enough plays down the stretch.
“Well, Virginia is a very, very, very tough team. Those guys just never gave up. Coming into this game Coach, he told us that we better be ready for a dogfight. That’s what it was,” Dawson said.
Indeed, the Cavaliers proved their mettle Friday night just as they had throughout this season. After a 9-4 non-conference record entering the 2014 portion of the season, the Cavaliers won 21 of 24 games the rest of the way. They finished the season with 30 wins (tied a program record), their first Sweet Sixteen since 1995, their first outright ACC Regular Season Championship since 1981, and their first ACC Tournament Championship since 1976.
Resurrecting Virginia basketball is what the team’s only two seniors, Joe Harris and Akil Mitchell, joined Bennett to do as part of his first recruiting class. So despite the disappointing finale for their careers, that duo can look back somewhere down the road and know that they helped bring back the Wahoos.
“I would just say Akil and I have been through a lot in our four years here, and this is how we wanted to leave the program. We wanted to leave it in a better spot than when we came in, and I think we definitely did that,” Harris said. “And for to us make it to a Sweet 16 was awesome. To play in the Garden was unbelievable, but what made it more special was the team that we have is a special team. The bond that we have with one another, with our coaches, with our trainer, everyone, it goes down the line, with our managers, everybody is close with one another. And for all of us to experience it together made it such an unbelievable experience, and something that we’ll never forget for the rest of our lives.”
