And then there was one.
Virginia and Kentucky entered Saturday as the only unbeaten teams remaining in Division I men’s college basketball. Off to its best start since the Ralph Sampson era, the No. 2 Cavaliers finally saw their undefeated start to the season end when No. 4 Duke crashed an ESPN GameDay party in Charlottesville with a 69-63 win.
The loss stopped UVa’s 19-0 start to the season and snapped a 21-game home winning streak at the John Paul Jones Arena.
“I’m frustrated right now because I felt like it was in the grasps. I felt like we had it to take home, but we couldn’t finish it,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “No question, North Carolina will be charged up [on Monday]. That’s the beauty of this league. It’s like the old Big East. You better be ready to lace them up every night. You hate to give up a game like this on your home floor, but I told our guys – ‘It’s what you do from here on out.’ I think our guys understand that.”
Indeed, the Cavaliers appeared to be in control of the game with an 11-point lead at 45-34 entering the final 11 minutes. The hosts even seemed to answer a Duke surge to hold a 58-50 lead with 4:48 to play. For fans, those late-game moments have become known as Cavalanche territory, the moment the Hoos pull away with a late landslide.
The Blue Devils, however, fought ice with fire.
The visitors made 14 of their last 17 shots (82.4%) over the final 9:39 of competition when they had made 14 of 38 shots (36.8%) up until that point. Duke scored 35 points in the final 10 minutes with 19 of those in the final 5 minutes. The Devils ignited from 3-point range in particular in the final 5 minutes. Duke made its 5 triples, all in the final 4:38 to rally out of the 58-50 hole.
Senior Quinn Cook made three of the treys to finish with 15 points, while Tyus Jones hit both of his 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes as well. Jones ended up with 17 points and 4 assists.
“I think it was both. I have to take my hat off to them – their guards hit big shots,” Virginia’s Malcolm Brogdon said. “But we have to look at ourselves and be introspective and really realize that we definitely had a part in that. It wasn’t just them hitting shots. They were hitting some open shots and that hurt us.”
Duke’s 3-point shooting near the end of the game proved to be only part of the issue for Virginia’s defense. The normally consistent and stable Pack-Line approach had numerous lapses throughout the game as the Blue Devils put together runs of 11-2, 10-4, 8-2, and 14-2 at different points. The final surge came courtesy of the 3-point flurry in the final 3:22.
The Devils scored 14 second-chance points and also put up 14 fastbreak points (10 in the opening half) when the Hoos had allowed just 31 all season in the previous 19 games. Plus, Duke shot a high percentage from two-point range, going 22 of 38 inside the arc for 57.9%. Entering the game, UVa ranked No. 2 in the nation against two-point field goals by allowing just 36.7% shooting. As a result, the Blue Devils finished the game 28 of 55 for 50.9% shooting, which broke a string of 43 games where the Cavaliers had held opponents below the 50% mark.
In short, while the Pack-Line neutralized star Duke center Jahlil Okafor to some extent – he had 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting with 3 assists and 5 turnovers – it didn’t take care of business in its usual fashion.
“We were in the showers saying ‘Man, we were up 11, what happened?’ We don’t have the answers yet because we haven’t seen the film and the film never lies as coach always says,” Virginia’s Justin Anderson said. “We had some flaws. They exposed them and they cracked us. Hat’s off to them on offense.”
Offensively, Brogdon set the tone for the Cavaliers as he posted 17 points. He made 7 of 15 shots and 1 of 4 triples. Brogdon added 6 rebounds and 2 assists. The Wahoos also got 11 points and 5 rebounds from Anderson, who made 4 of 11 shots but only a single 3-pointer. Darion Atkins added 9 points and 4 rebounds, while Mike Tobey had 8 points and 5 rebounds. London Perrantes and Isaiah Wilkins chipped in 7 points each. Perrantes had 5 assists, while Wilkins had 5 rebounds.
Brogdon was particularly strong in the second half when he had 13 points, including 8 points in the first 6 minutes. After that start, the Blue Devils flipped out of their man-to-man defense and switched between 2-3 and 3-2 zones the rest of the way. Virginia made 10 of 22 shots against the zones, but it seemed to change the rhythm of the game just enough in Duke’s favor.
“There were a few possessions where I thought we were a little stagnant and didn’t get the looks we wanted against their zone. Still, we got to the rim and got some rhythm shots at the mid-post. I thought there was enough offense there to win that game,” Bennett said. “At the end, you have to come up with some tough stops. Those errors and breakdowns cost us.”
The Cavaliers head to Chapel Hill on Monday night for a showdown with North Carolina. That game, like Saturday’s GameDay showcase, is at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
