The Virginia men’s basketball team lost its first road game of the season nearly a full year since losing its last road game at all. The Cavaliers led in the final 10 seconds at Louisville on Saturday before the Cardinals stole the 59-57 win on a go-ahead bucket with 2.7 seconds to go.
UVa, which last lost a road game on March 9, 2014 at Maryland before Saturday’s setback, finished the regular season at 28-2 and 16-2 in the ACC. The Hoos have won back-to-back ACC Regular Season Championships and will again be the No. 1 seed at the ACC Tournament next week. They play the Clemson-Florida State winner on Thursday at noon in Greensboro.
“I know Coach Pitino gave praise to our crowd when he came and I’ll do the same because it was live. You could feel it,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “They played inspired. … I wanted our guys to be in the toughest setting. We were going to have to beat them at their best. We had to be at our best and we weren’t quite there for long enough. It’s a valuable lesson so be thankful for what we learned and get ready for ACC Tournament.”
The Cavaliers trailed for most of the game at Louisville, but surged into the lead twice in the second half. Each time, however, the Cardinals had an answer. After trailing by double digits in the first half and by five at halftime, UVa uncorked a 12-2 run to lead 37-36 with 14:40 to go. Louisville responded almost immediately to retake the lead for nearly 10 more minutes of action.
The Cards still led entering the final 20 seconds, but the Hoos turned to Malcolm Brogdon for a clutch shot on the road again. Reminiscent of his clutch jumper that beat Pitt at Pitt last season, Brogdon nailed a corner 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds remaining and UVa moved ahead 57-56. Brogdon, who knocked down 4 triples in the second half, finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. The Cavaliers also got 10 points from Darion Atkins, 9 from Anthony Gill, 7 from London Perrantes, and 6 from Evan Nolte.
Louisville stepped up to meet the challenge once again, though. The Cardinals went to a ball screen play with guard Terry Rozier, but the Hoos smothered the guard off the pick. Essentially trapped, Rozier threw the ball back to screener Mangok Mathiang as the only open option the play. Mathiang took the free throw line jumper – his only shot attempt of the game – and it swished through for a 58-57 advantage. Rozier later added a free throw after UVa turned the ball over on a fullcourt pass attempt to reach the final two-point margin.
“I was so happy Mangok Mathiang made that shot because it was a big lift for our basketball team” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “What we tried to do, obviously we didn’t have a lot of time to, was run a lot of motion. We were hoping that Terry could get in the lane, look down low to Montrezl [Harrell] if he couldn’t turn the corner. Mangok was the 64th option.”
“We obviously wanted to make it hard for [Terry] Rozier and Montrezl [Harrell],” Bennett said. “I thought we defended the possession pretty well. There’s always could we switch ball screens? Could we do some things? … I was okay with the way we defended that possession. I don’t know if someone was scrambling to at least bother the shot, but good for him. He stepped up and made a big shot. I don’t think that’s his forte, but he did it in a big setting and that was obviously the nail in the coffin for us.”
After slugging it out in Charlottesville during a 52-47 UVa win in February, the two teams played a much smoother game this time around as both offenses improved. In the first meeting, Louisville shot 37.0% and logged only 6 assists, while Virginia shot 33.3% with just 2 turnovers. The two teams combined to make only 5 treys that night (3 for Louisville, 2 for Virginia).
In the rematch Saturday, the Cardinals upped their shooting percentage to 46.9% and dished out 10 assists. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, made 47.7% of their shots, but they committed 13 turnovers. The two teams combined for 13 3-pointers this time around (8 for Virginia, 5 for Louisville). In the end, the turnovers may have been Virginia’s undoing. The Hoos held a 15-0 edge in points off turnovers in the first game and scored 15 points off turnovers again in the second meeting. The Cardinals, however, poured in 17 points off turnovers this time around.
“Well, we got our 35 deflections,” Pitino said. “When you play 59-57 and you have 19 deflections at halftime, you’re going to not only have the lead, but you’re going to be good on the break. We were 8-for-11 on the break. When you get 35 deflections with a 59-57 game, you’re playing good defense.”
Harrell, a junior honored on Senior Night in what is likely his last season at Louisville, was one of the big beneficiaries of those turnovers. Numerous times during the contest, he ran the floor after a turnover and was on the receiving end of fastbreak chances that he slammed home with ease. Harrell finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 blocked shot. Louisville also got 11 each from Rozier and Quentin Snider, but Harrell clearly was the difference-maker.
“He plays really inspired at home. He feeds off the crowd and we let him get a few easy ones,” Bennett said. “I thought we trapped him up … he was real aggressive against our post trap. He just made some of those ‘X factor’ hustle plays. When you talk about winning 50/50 balls or getting the ‘X factor’ plays – they got the majority of them. He ignited them with some of those and made some tough plays. He made some easy ones on breakouts. He’s a good one. There’s no question. I saw that when I was fortunate enough to be an assistant on the USA Team and he can take over games. I thought we were a little better down the stretch on him but he’s a lot to handle.”
Evan Nolte’s six points should be mentioned. Mike Tobey scored five points instead of six.
You are correct. Read Mike Tobey’s rebound line as points by mistake.