Virginia Pastes Pitt, Clinches Outright ACC Regular Season Title

Virginia is ranked No. 1 in the nation.
De’Andre Hunter and the Hoos clinched the outright ACC Regular Season Championship. ~ Mike Ingalls

Fewer than three minutes into Saturday’s game at Pittsburgh, the Virginia basketball team led 8-0. That would have been enough to lead at halftime if the Hoos didn’t score another point.

Behind a dominant defensive performance that limited Pitt to just seven points in the first half, the No. 1 Cavaliers cruised to the 66-37 victory on the road. That marked the fewest points allowed by UVA in a half in the shot clock era that began in 1986.

“I’ve been on the other side of that, [scoring] maybe nine or 10 or 12 [points in a half],” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “That’s a hard feeling. … [Pitt] is so young and they’ve had some things happen. So, I certainly feel compassion. But, you’re in the heat of the game and we were trying to be as focused as we can. They actually missed some [good] shots. When I saw [the box score] I was surprised that they had only one field goal made in that first half. They just missed some point blank ones, and I think their inexperience and youth showed up, and for the most part we were in [defensive] position.”

Just how good was the first half effort on defense? The Hoos allowed only one made field goal as the Panthers went 1-of-22 shooting, a meager 4.5%. The performance closely resembled the December 2014 game against Harvard where the Crimson managed to go 1-of-20 shooting (5%) in the first half and trailed 39-8 at the John Paul Jones Arena. In fact, those represent two of the three games in the shot clock era where a team only made one field goal in a half. The other team that shares the NCAA record there is Kansas State, which allowed only one field goal against Savannah State in a half in 2008.

Throughout the first 20 minutes, Pitt simply did not create many clean looks and even when an opening appeared to materialize, UVA quickly closed it. The Panthers did get a little bit of offense going in the second half when they posted 30 points, but much of that production came long after UVA’s starters exited the floor. The hosts ended up shooting 23.9% for the game and 28% from 3-point range.

The only player to reach double figures proved to be Parker Stewart, who had 12 points.

“Defensively, they just don’t have weaknesses and make it very difficult for you,” Pittsburgh coach Kevin Stallings said. “I thought we were a little intimidated in the first half, which surprised me because we have not shown that so much, I don’t think. I mean, we have been beaten soundly a few times, but I haven’t felt like we were necessarily intimidated. I thought we were intimidated at times in the first half. We missed some layups, we missed some stuff right around the goal there, but you don’t get many good shots against them. Then what happens when you do get a good one, then you rush it because you are thinking, ‘Gosh, we don’t get many of these, we have to try to get this one in the goal and then you rush yourself. But their defense is just phenomenal, it just is. There is nothing you can really say.”

While Virginia’s defense did some historic things in the first half, the offense clicked throughout most of the game too. UVA made 25 of 49 shots (51%), eight of 16 3-pointers (50%), and eight of 11 free throws (72.7%) to get to 66 points. The Hoos tallied 15 assists on those 25 made shots and committed just eight turnovers.

The Cavaliers placed three players in double figures, while 11 of 13 players that played scored. De’Andre Hunter led the way with 14 points and 10 rebounds, the first double-double of his career. Hunter made five of nine shots and logged three assists too. Nigel Johnson came off the bench as well and recorded 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go with three assists. Ty Jerome led the starters with 13 points and one assist in 24 minutes.

Kyle Guy scored only three points, but that came on a 3-pointer that extended his made 3-pointer streak to 28 games. That’s the third longest run in Virginia history. He left the game after a hard fall early in the second half and played just 19 minutes, but Bennett said he was cleared to return if needed. Devon Hall added five points and four assists in 25 minutes, while Isaiah Wilkins and Jack Salt had four points each. Wilkins played 21 minutes, while Salt logged 12. Jay Huff also chipped in four points and two blocked shots as he played the final eight minutes.

“It was a good feeling,” Wilkins said of the starters getting extra rest. “It’s obviously good for your body, and it’s good for those guys to get out there and get some experience.”

The Cavaliers clinched the outright ACC Regular Season Championship with the win for the third time in the last five seasons to provide some icing on the cake. They currently own a 26-2 record with a 15-1 mark in ACC play. They clinched the ACC Tournament’s top seed with Wednesday’s win against Georgia Tech, but avoided any ties in the standings with Saturday’s victory. Bennett is just the sixth coach in league history to win three outright regular season titles.

While consistently winning is something that has grown common at Virginia – this is the seventh straight season with at least 20 wins and the fourth time in five seasons with 25 or more – getting the outright title is something new for most of this roster. For Johnson, a graduate transfer from Rutgers, he expected to join a winning culture but this season is exceeding those expectations.

“I knew that I was coming to a team that was going to be good and had the tradition of winning,” Johnson said. “I didn’t even know it was going to be this good. We shattered my expectations. I expected to be somewhere in the top 4 or 5 in the ACC, but to be outright champs and No. 1 in the country – I didn’t even expect that.”

Virginia Basketball Final Stats