Hoos Head To ACC Title Game With Win

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Malcolm Brogdon scored 24 points in the victory. He’s reached the 20-point barrier 17 times this season. ~ Kris Wright

WASHINGTON – Virginia started fast in the ACC Tournament semifinals on Saturday and fought off numerous Miami surges the rest of the night to get a 73-68 victory. That included some tense final moments that saw the Hurricanes finally cut the lead to 3 points with 2.1 seconds remaining, but the last-gasp comeback attempt fell short.

The Cavaliers earned a trip to the ACC Tournament Championship Game for the second time in three years with the win. Virginia won the 2014 title against Duke and it gets a shot at the other shade of blue from the state in Saturday’s showdown with North Carolina at 9 p.m.

“I really liked how our guys fought and battled,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said. “I asked them to have a warrior-like mentality heading into this game. I’m thankful to God for the guys that He brought in my path to coach, that they get after it, they sacrifice a lot. They do things that are about the right stuff. Were we perfect? No. Did Miami get in the paint? Did we have some breakdowns and just did not communicate and did they exploit it? Yes. I love the resiliency, and the warrior-like attitude that I ask from them. They laid it out there and now they get a chance to contend for [a title].”

The Cavaliers jumped on the Hurricanes quickly with a 12-2 run out of the gates, which included a pair of 3-pointers on the first two possessions of the game. Malcolm Brogdon started things off with a 3-pointer in the first minute and London Perrantes added another on the next trip. Anthony Gill, Isaiah Wilkins, and Mike Tobey followed with buckets of their own and UVA had a double-digit lead just 5:14 into the game.

Virginia ended up hitting 11 of its first 15 shot attempts (73.3%) and Miami spent the rest of the night trying to recover. In the first half, the Canes sliced the lead to 6 points on three different occasions only to see UVA build it back. In the last two minutes, Miami ripped off a 6-0 run to get to 36-31 at halftime.

That pattern was a bit of foreshadowing because the Hurricanes did the same thing after intermission. They cut the lead to 3 points three times in the first 8:19 of the second half, but Virginia held them off again as the lead grew back to double digits. After UVA grabbed a 65-52 lead with 2:05 to go, however, Miami made one more push. In those two minutes, the Hoos fouled on a 3-point shot (Sheldon McClellan made all 3 free throws) and missed 6 free throws.

That included a pair by Perrantes with 12.8 seconds to go that left the comeback door cracked before Brogdon slammed it shut. He made both attempts at the stripe with 2.1 seconds remaining to finally send Miami home from the tourney.

“We were really anxious to start the game,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “We didn’t do the things we planned on doing. We dug ourselves a quick hole. We were down, like, 10 early. Fought our way back. I thought we were in good shape at halftime. The second half, we got it within three several times. But uncharacteristically we turned the ball over. We had 16 turnovers for the game. That’s just not like us. Normally 9, 10, 11, but not 16. That was really the difference in the game.”

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Those final 2 free throws were part of another big night for Brogdon, who led all scorers with 24 points. He also added 4 assists and 3 rebounds. It’s the third straight ACC Tournament game with at least 20 points for Brogdon – he had 25 in last year’s semi against UNC and 26 in this year’s quarterfinal against Georgia Tech. Brogdon has scored 20 or more points 17 times this season, including all three meetings with Miami. He has climbed to 11th on the all-time scoring list with 1,737 points.

Against Miami, he made 10 off 11 free throws and 6 of 15 shots as part of his big scoring night. He was a perfect 6-6 in the final minute to help stave off the comeback attempt.

“It’s all mental. It’s nothing but your [mentality],” Brogdon said. “You just have to step up to the line and be confident in yourself and knock ’em down. I feel like that’s one of my roles on this team as one of the older guys, is to step to the line confidently at the end of the game and try to finish it.”

Brogdon got plenty of help overall as seven different players had at least 6 points. Perrantes tallied 11 points, 3 assists, and 0 turnovers. Marial Shayok added 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting in an impactful 23 minutes. Darius Thompson chipped in 6 points and gave the team another option when it went to a 4-guard lineup. Wilkins led the post scorers with 8 points and 7 rebounds, but Gill and Tobey added 6 points each too.

The Hoos needed all of that scoring punch. The Hurricanes managed to spread out the Pack-Line at times and shot 54.8% from the field (23-42), largely behind drives into that space. That’s a season-high for a UVA opponent. They also got to the free throw line to make 18 of 24 free throws. Ja’Quan Newton caused the most trouble with 19 points as he made 9 of 11 free throws in the game. Miami also got 15 from Sheldon McClellan.

Still, Virginia never wavered. After that initial burst in the opening minutes, the Cavaliers led from wire to wire and fended off every surge from the Hurricanes. That required varying lineups and varying contributors plus enough of the little plays – like Tobey diving on the floor to get a loose ball that led to a layup for Wilkins – to get past a very tough team.

UVA likely will need a similar spirit in a top 10 matchup with North Carolina for the ACC Tournament title.

“We’ve got the right kind of guys. They play the right way. We’re just trying to do it the right way, as I said,” Bennett said. “It hasn’t been easy. This year has been a little different than the last one. We know how good Miami is and we know what — I don’t know the final score, but Carolina put it on pretty good to Notre Dame, how potent they are. We’re looking forward to the opportunity and we’ll have to be at our best.”

Final Stats