Road Struggles Continue As UVA Loses At FSU

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London Perrantes scored 19 points at FSU. ~ Mike Ingalls

It’s doubtful that Willie Nelson will make the playlist on Virginia road trips anytime soon. The UVA men’s basketball team’s struggles away from Charlottesville continued on Sunday, after all, with a 69-62 loss at Florida State. That snapped a five-game winning streak against the Seminoles.

The Cavaliers are now 1-4 in road games this season, which includes a trio of losses in ACC play. Three losses, of course, is more than the Hoos (13-4, 2-3 ACC) suffered in either of the last two seasons of conference play when they finished 16-2 in each year. The defeat at FSU marked the first time this season that Virginia led at halftime before losing.

UVA coach Tony Bennett once again pointed out the fine line between winning and losing after the loss.

“There were a couple key times where they would beat us off the dribble or we fouled that hurt us. To win against good teams or win on the road you have to be able to come up with some stops,” Bennett said. “They were playing inspired ball. They’ve got very talented players. … You accompany that with us not finishing some opportunities that we got point blank. It’s tough, its close, you need to have some things go well that haven’t been going well. When you can’t count on making a stop it hurts, they get inopportune times. We either missed a bunny, or didn’t finish, or they came away with a shot that was too much of a high percentage shot.”

Consistency on both ends of the floor certainly has been a problem on the road.

On offense, Virginia has had trouble putting the ball in the basket. Against the Seminoles, the team shot just 39.3% from the floor. That’s the third time in four road losses that UVA has shot 40.4% or worse from the field. The exception came in the road loss at Virginia Tech where the Hoos made 49% of their shot attempts.

Malcolm Brogdon and London Perrantes had the biggest struggles on Sunday as the road trend of them taking more shots continued. Brogdon hit 4 of 17 attempts (23.5%) in the game, which included 1-4 from 3-point range. He attempted only one free throw. He finished with 10 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds. Brogdon also passed Mel Kennedy (1,415 points) for 23rd on the program’s all-time scoring list. Perrantes, meanwhile, made 4 of 13 shots (30.8%), but did knock down 4 of 7 3-pointers and 7 of 8 free throws. He posted 19 points, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds.

Evan Nolte (0-4) and Isaiah Wilkins (2-5) accounted for most of the other misses in the contest. Anthony Gill scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting; he’s been in double figures in every game and reached that plateau Sunday despite second half foul trouble. Devon Hall (2-3/6 points), Mike Tobey (2-3/4 points), Jack Salt (2-2/4 points), and Darius Thompson (1-1/2 points) missed just two shots combined. Marial Shayok did not play.

Hall got his first start of the season and just the second start of his career as the Hoos continued to look for the right mix in the rotation.

“He’s been in the system for three years and he brings some good fight to start the game,” Bennett said. “I think he did a solid job out there. He had his hands full guarding that guy. I think he got beat outside on one of those crucial possessions but he did some good things for us. I’ve used Marial, Darius, Devon, just went with that. I liked what I saw with Devon, I’ll watch the tape and get a feel for that. We will shorten the rotation a little bit, Marial didn’t play as much in this game. When you don’t feel like you’re clicking you’re searching a little bit for rotation so we tightened them and went with that. We are looking for answers so we will keep searching for sure.”

In addition to the offense faltering on the road and lineup changes, defensive inconsistency continues to be an issue as well. Florida State posted 48.8% shooting (21-43) in the game, including a blistering 63.2% number (12-19) in the second half. The Seminoles also made 21 of 26 free throws in the win as well. Dwayne Bacon (6-11/18 points), Malik Beasley (5-10/17 points), Xavier Rathan-Mayes (7-8 free throws/11 points), and Devon Bookert (3-4/9 points) all had success in some way against the Hoos.

Bad defensive halves like Sunday’s second half breakdown have been a theme on the road. All four losses on the road have featured at least one half of simply poor defense from the Hoos. George Washington shot 50% (12-24) in the first half and 45.1% overall in its November win. Virginia Tech ripped off 57.7% (15-26) in the second half and 47.1% overall. Georgia Tech hit 48.3% (14-29) in the first half and 43.6% overall. FSU’s 63.2% (12-19) and 48.8% overall are just became the latest in line as mentioned above.

All three ACC teams blistered the Virginia defense from behind the 3-point line too. VT made 52.9% (9-17) in its win. GT followed at 53.3% (8-15) and Florida State joined the parade at 46.2% (6-13).

“They came out and they had a good start of the second half,” Bennett said. “I thought we regained some control in our offense hard and we started getting the looks we wanted, so that was good. In the first half we defended well, but you have to be able to defend for longer stretches well. It is definitely a test against that kind of talent.”

“It doesn’t come down to X’s and O’s anymore,” Perrantes said in The Daily Progress. “I think it just comes down to heart and energy and things like that – just stuff that’s inside of people that we need to get out of some people. We just need people to step up for us outside of the three that score the most. But it all comes down to defensive energy and displaying some grit. We’re not doing that.”

Virginia returns home for the next two games, starting with Clemson on Tuesday night at 8 p.m.

Final Stats