The singer Tony Bennett performed just up the interstate from Virginia’s game in Raleigh on Wednesday night, but a Willie Nelson concert may have been even more apropos. After all, the Cavaliers just can’t wait to get on the road again these days.
Playing its first full game without injured junior Justin Anderson, UVa secured a 51-47 win against NC State on Wednesday night at PNC Arena. The Cavaliers have won a nation-leading nine straight games on the road, the best start away from home since the 1980-81 team won its first 10. It also marked the fourth straight win against the Wolfpack in Raleigh. The Hoos have come out victorious at Maryland, Notre Dame, Miami, and VCU among other venues this season.
“It was a grinder. It wasn’t pretty but it was a win. All those cliches,” Cav coach Tony Bennett told reporters. “You look a the shooting percentages. It was hard. Louisville was tough – it wasn’t quite as charged as that. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. We just stayed in there long enough. There wasn’t a rhythm. We just couldn’t get going, but we stayed in there long enough.”
Adding another road win to the column wasn’t easy. The No. 2 Cavaliers (22-1, 10-1 ACC) struggled to make shots, especially from 3-point range, and for large stretches the offense couldn’t establish a rhythm as the team began the process of playing without Anderson, who is out four to six weeks after finger surgery. In the end, UVa made 19 of 51 shots (37.3%), 2 of 11 triples (18.2%), and 11 of 18 free throws (61.1%).
Still, despite the poor shooting, the Cavaliers didn’t stray far from their usual plan despite Anderson’s absence: share the ball and share the offensive load. Four different Hoos had at least 7 points in the win. Malcolm Brogdon tallied 15 points despite a short spell of foul trouble late in the game. He added 4 rebounds and 3 assists too. Mike Tobey came through with a strong game too, posting 11 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal. Anthony Gill added 9 points and 11 rebounds, falling a single point shy of a double-double thanks to a slow night at the free throw line (3 of 8). London Perrantes chipped in 7 points.
Brogdon, Tobey, and Gill led the way in the final 8 minutes when the Wahoos made their move toward victory lane. Trailing 33-31, Gill fed Brogdon for a layup in the paint. Moments later, Gill was on the receiving end of a sweet pass from Evan Nolte, which led to a dunk and a traditional 3-point play. Brogdon grabbed a defensive rebound approximately 30 seconds later and pushed the ball ahead in transition where he assisted on a Devon Hall layup. That 7-0 surge gave UVa a lead that it never relinquished in a game with 10 ties and 10 lead changes.
Brogdon and Tobey helped that lead stand up with several other key plays down the stretch too. Tobey scored on an old-school 3-point play of his own at the 4:44 mark when Hall drove and dropped off a pass. The junior center also dunked on a step-through layup on a feed from Brogdon with 1:19 to play, a bucket that pushed the Cavaliers’ lead to 45-42 at the time. Brogdon and Tobey put the game away with 4 free throws in the final 7 seconds as well.
“[Mike Tobey] was big for us down the stretch and we need that out of him because he’s such a great player,” Gill told reporters. “That dunk he had at the end was awesome. We practice that all the time and he never really does it, but today he pulled it out.”
”They didn’t trap [us] as much in the second half and we decided we needed to try to go inside, get on the glass, and be a little more patient,” Bennett told reporters.
Of course, Virginia needed its reliable defense to make 51 points enough to win and as the team is fond of saying, the defense travels. The Hoos held the Wolfpack to 33.3% shooting (19 of 57), including a tough 17.6% shooting night from 3-point range (3 of 17). NCSU entered the game shooting 37.1%, good enough for 61st in the country. Trevor Lacey led the Pack with 14 points,while Anthony Barber posted 11. Kyle Washington added 7 points, but Ralston Turner turned in only 4 after scoring 14 in the Charlottesville match-up.
UVa has now held 10 opponents to less than 50 points this season and is 10-0 in those games. The Hoos are 46-2 in the Bennett era in that scenario. The Cavaliers rank No. 1 nationally in scoring defense (50.7 points per game allowed) and No. 2 in defensive efficiency (0.841 points per possession allowed).
Of course, the ‘Hoos also have come out victorious at Chapel Hill, among other venues this season!