Stingy Hoos Take Sting Out Of Jackets

 

Freshman Tadric Jackson missed two free throws and Georgia Tech coach Brian Gregory slowly trudged down the sideline in front of his bench, dropped into squatting position, and put his forehead into the palm of his hand for a moment. With 7:24 remaining, it was already that kind of night for the visiting Yellow Jackets.

Virginia added to what was a 26-point lead at that moment and eventually ended up with a 57-28 victory Thursday night. Of course, Gregory’s moment of frustration isn’t an unusual feeling for visiting teams at the John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers have won 21 straight games at home with 20 coming by double figures. They have also won 21 ACC home games in a row, the longest run in the league since Duke won 22 straight home games from 2002-04.

“I give Virginia credit. … They did a really good job. They make it so you have to make every open shot, and we struggled to make open shots tonight. We struggled against their overall defense,” Gregory said. “The one thing they have done all year long is that, even when they’re not scoring, they play the same defense every time. In this day and age to play that type of defense without always getting the reward on offense is credit to Tony Bennett and his staff.”

Georgia Tech, which has struggled with outside shooting all season (26%, 347th nationally, from 3-point range entering the game), never found an offensive groove with UVa’s Pack-Line defense dialed in from start to finish. Virginia held the Jackets to zero 3-pointers on 0-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc on Thursday and pestered anything on the interior as well. GT finished at 24.5% shooting (12-49) for the game.

To make matters worse, GT couldn’t help set each other up either. The visitors posted only 2 assists with 10 turnovers on the night. Only Charles Mitchell found any sort of consistent success as he made 3 of 4 shots for 6 points. Marcus Georges-Hunt led the team with 7 points, but that came on a very tough 3-of-9 shooting night.

In total, six teams have not cracked 40 points against the Hoos this season and Thursday night’s defensive performance marked the third time that an opponent fell short of the 30-point barrier. Rutgers scored 26 back in November, while Harvard finished with 27 in December. All three of the sub-30 opponents had cold shooting performances on a night where UVa’s defense was locked in for most of the game. Per Virginia Athletics Media Relations, GT’s 28-point total is the lowest ever in a regular season ACC game and tied for the fifth lowest in any ACC game period.

“If you can make them come up empty a few times in a row and you can go on the offensive side and get them chasing you, that can do a lot for you. We’ve shown the ability to embrace the possession,” Cavalier coach Tony Bennett said. “We are not going to give in and we are not going to give them an easy look. Everything is going to be contested. The guys embraced that throughout tonight.”

“We knew Georgia Tech was a very good offensive team coming in, so we tried to impose our will defensively from the very beginning and see where it took us,” Virginia junior Malcolm Brogdon said. He also said: “I think our momentum on defense really helps. We build on each stop we get, and then it builds our offense and gets our offense going. I also think our fans get into it. They love the stops just as much as they love the scoring, so that’s really tremendous for us.”

On the other end of the floor, UVa used a balanced attack on offense as 10 different Cavaliers made it into the scorebook and 8 different players scored at least 5 points. Virginia posted 13 assists on 24 made shots and committed only 4 turnovers for the second straight home game. The Wahoos finished at 45.3% shooting (24 of 53), but made 5 of 9 triples (55.6%) and 4 of 6 free throws (66.7%).

Justin Anderson scored 7 points and matched Brogdon’s 4 assists as part of the other offensive contributors. Anthony Gill also added 7 points off the bench, while starters Darion Atkins and Mike Tobey added 5 and 2 points respectively. Marial Shayok finished with 6 points, while Isaiah Wilkins and Evan Nolte chipped in 5 each. London Perrantes rounded out the 5-point club.

Brogdon, however, stole the show as the only player to reach double figures on the night for either team. He made 6 of 8 shots (75%) to tally 13 points, the 25th time in the last 27 ACC games that he reached at least 10 points. He added 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal too.

Against Georgia Tech, many of the shots were highlight quality. He started the game with a jumper on a curl cut. He drove from the right wing and finished with a left-handed finger roll later in the first half. He used a shot fake and step-through move to beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer 1:55 before intermission. That didn’t even count a baseline drive and reverse dunk that was waved off in the first half.

The ‘wow’ moment of the night, however, came during the Hoos’ second half dominance. Brogdon drove to the baseline on the right side and appeared ready to attack the rim when Demarco Cox rotated in his direction. Brogdon calmly swooped the ball around the rim to the other side while switching hands for a Dr. J style reverse lay-up that had the arena and press row buzzing.

“The reverse lay-up was pretty,” UVa’s Justin Anderson said. “If you look back probably, you see a couple of those bunnies that he’s missed from those types of reverse layups and for him to get it today was nice. I just love seeing him be athletic because – I’m not going to say his athleticism is under-estimated because he’s not athletic at all, but he has it in him at times to make crazy athletic plays.”

Brogdon took the ribbing in stride.

“I heard that,” Brogdon said smiling. “There’s a lot of stuff he tells me every day, but Justin is a freak athlete. Very gifted. I’ve got to try to get my points in other ways. I’m not going to have crazy dunks all the time.”

Final Stats