The No. 18 University of Virginia men’s basketball program put together a nearly flawless second half of offense, posting 52 second-half points in an 85-50 drubbing of No. 12 Clemson on Saturday in Littlejohn Coliseum. The victory, which boosts the Hoos to 9-2 overall and 5-0 in the ACC, is UVA’s first over a ranked opponent in the 2020-21 season. This is the UVA’s fourth straight win at Clemson, 11th straight win in the series, and 13th consecutive conference win dating back to the end of 2019-20.
Twenty-two seconds in, senior forward Sam Hauser opened the scoring with a 3-pointer on an assist from true freshman point guard Reece Beekman. Head coach Tony Bennett would see much more of that from his team throughout the rest of the game. However, UVA took control from the start thanks to its trademark defense.
Star forward Aamir Simms answered Hauser’s 3-pointer with a field goal of his own to pull the Tigers within one at the 19:22 mark. The homestanding Tigers would not score again until the 8:49 mark, when guard Clyde Trapp made a free throw. By then the visitors had rattled off 15 straight points and taken a 16-point lead. Clemson, which had not played a game in 11 days because of a COVID-19-related pause, made only one of its 14 field goal attempts and missed its first 10 3-point tries.
The Cavaliers led by as many as 24 points on three separate occasions in the first half, the last of which being a 33-9 lead with 2:40 left to play. The Tigers showed signs of life during an 8-0 run before halftime to close within 16. Hopes of a comeback increased as guard Nick Honor made a layup to start second-half play, but UVA answered with a 10-0 spurt to regain a 24-point advantage. The Hoos never relented, particularly on the offensive end, and by the 10-minute mark the game was well out of reach at 67-37.
“We gave up some easy baskets at the end of the first half and I don’t think we’ve played 40 minutes of real good defense, or a complete two halves majority of good defense,” Bennett said when asked about how his team responded to Clemson’s 10-0 run at the end of the first half and beginning of the second. “We’re up 16 and yeah that’s obviously a big lead but certainly not insurmountable in today’s game. Then they get an easy backdoor, we had a breakdown. I think we came down and hit a three. But then I thought our defense tightened up and we did answer the bell in terms of that because they’re a good defensive team and they’re physical. Now, they were off for, I don’t know if it’s four days, five days and they looked rusty. You could see that when they did get some open shots, but for the most part, we kept them in front of us and used our length. When you combine the defense, with that kind of shooting and then it came together nicely. We didn’t take our foot off the gas and we were, for the most part sound and made Clemson earn their baskets.”
UVA shot 60.7% from the field, including 15-of-27 from beyond the arc (55.6%), in Saturday evening’s victory. For the third time in the last four games Virginia had five players reach double-digit points. Hauser and Tomas Woldetensae led the way with 14 points apiece. Hauser made 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, including all three tries in the second half. Woldetensae sparked the Hoos off the bench, making three-of-four 3-pointers and scoring 9 points in the first half.
Trey Murphy III, who made all five shot attempts on the night, scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half as UVA closed out the ACC’s most highly ranked team according to the Associated Press. Kihei Clark and Jay Huff contributed 12 points apiece to round out the double-digit scoring efforts. Beekman chipped in 8 points and posted career-highs in assists (6) and rebounds (5), adding 2 steals as well. Virginia dished out 22 assists in the game and committed only seven turnovers against a defense that ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense (57.6 points per game) and was no. 1 in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency coming in. The Tigers had not allowed 70 points in any game prior to UVA while holding opponents to 39.1% from the field and 29.9% from 3.
In the final 20 minutes of play, UVA made 67.7% of its field goals including 10-of-14 3s and dished out 14 assists while committing only two turnovers.
“Well, I mean, probably both,” Bennett said, referring to whether Saturday’s outcome was more because of UVA’s play or Clemson’s COVID-19-related layoff. “Maybe offensively. I just thought, we did, we talked about being ball strong, you know, take care of the ball, because they’re going to try to climb into it. They’re really trying to pressure. Kihei [Clark] and then you saw us get some backdoors, pressure releases which really loosened things up and then we started hitting shots. When teams have hurt us, it’s been their fives and their fours stretching the defense, and those are hard matchups. So we’re kind of, we’re doing that and then Trey’s [Murphy III] hitting them. Kihei, they’re really taking him away, he’s so quick. He gets some backdoors, he’s in the paint, the penetration. Reece [Beekman] did a good job. Tom [Woldetensae] came in and gave us a lift with his shooting, which was great to see. So it came together nicely, so probably both, but that’s not to take anything away from our guys because we defended well and moved the ball, took care of it and then made the shots.”
Clemson, which relied on its bench for 36 of its 50 points, made 50% of its second-half field goals to pull up to 40.4% field goal shooting for the game. The Tigers finished 5-of-23 from beyond the arc, or 21.7%, with 7 assists and 9 turnovers. No Tiger scored in double figures.
Saturday’s matchup with Clemson was UVA’s first contest against a ranked opponent since facing No. 1 Gonzaga in Fort Worth, Texas, on December 26. The Cavaliers lost to the Zags by 23 but have responded with five straight wins, including this resounding victory over Brad Brownell’s squad. Three of the victories have come on the road.
“We learned from that loss,” Hauser said, referring to Gonzaga. “I think when you lose a game you learn, you don’t really take it as a loss, necessarily, you learn from it and grow from it. I think we’ve grown. We’ve taken some really good strides since that game and it’s been showing. We are undefeated in the conference right now. We just got to keep sticking with it in practice and stick to the grind and hopefully we can keep winning.”
Up next on the Hoos’ schedule is NC State, which is set for Tuesday, January 20, in John Paul Jones Arena, but the Wolfpack program is currently on a COVID-19 pause. UVA is then scheduled to face Georgia Tech at home on January 23.
Bennett wants to see his team continue to build on what they have found since December 26.
“Well, we responded in the right way,” Bennett said. “We’re learning about our team, we’re growing, we’re becoming steadier. I know we have guys that are older in age, but we’ve got three guys that have not played in a Virginia basketball uniform for a game, so there’s a newness there that I think, an identity has to be formed. How hard we have to defend, how we have to play to beat good teams and that’s just gotten better from after the Gonzaga game. True humble pie, right? I think we responded well, when it was Notre Dame next and then, just kept taking the right steps and thought it was a good effort obviously all the way around. And some really good individual performances.”
Notables
– To quote Jon Rothstein, Virginia’s 10-0 second-half run to take a 43-19 lead was “a thing of beauty.” Hauser and Huff connected on 3-pointers on consecutive possessions. Following a steal, Reece Beekman pushed up the court for a layup. Kihei Clark secured a steal on Clemson’s ensuing possession, pushed the ball up the court and converted a short pull-up jumper. The spurt took one minutes, 48 seconds.
– As the stats indicate, Virginia was completely in sync offensively in the second half. The Hoos were red-hot shooting, showed skill in transition, and moved the ball very well.
– Seven Cavaliers played 20+ minutes – Hauser (29), Beekman (29), Clark (26), Huff (26), Morsell (21), Murphy III (20) and Woldetensae (20). Huff, who had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, had the highest +/- figure at +39. The senior center was on the sideline for Clemson’s 8-0 run to end the first half because he had two fouls.
– UVA had 58 possessions in the game and scored on 35 of them. Clemson scored on 23 of its 58 possessions.
– UVA outrebounded Clemson, 33-21. The Tigers secured five offensive rebounds while UVA corralled 27 defensive boards.
– Redshirt freshman Kadin Shedrick was sidelined once again with a non-COVID related illness. For the second straight game, redshirt sophomore Papi Caffaro received the bulk of the minutes when Jay Huff was on the sideline. Caffaro finished with 2 points, 2 rebounds, 4 fouls and 3 turnovers in 13 minutes.
– Beekman was involved in UVA’s first score of the game. The rest of the Cavaliers’ heralded class of 2020 was in on the last, as Jabri Abdur-Rahim assisted Carson McCorkle’s 3-pointer as UVA reached 85 points. Abdur-Rahim had 2 points and an assist while McCorkle finished with 3 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist.
Nicely balanced article realizing there wasn’t much to say about Clemson.
NCS on TUESDAY, the 20th?
love to read your articles!
Obviously a great game. Just wish Corey would talk a little less over the action so that the players could be recognized for their shots and key plays.