LOUISVILLE, KY. – The Oregon basketball team started four players at 6’9” on Thursday night, but the Ducks’ hopes of an upset came up a foot short. That’s because 5’9” Virginia freshman Kihei Clark rose to the occasion with his biggest game of the season to help UVA advance to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight with a 53-49 win.
“Man, Kihei was terrific,” Cavalier forward Mamadi Diakite said. “Talking about a guy who represents what the pillar says. He shows every night. He shows up every night and plays great defense. But today, he was able to have 12 points. That was terrific. And that gave us a lot of lift.”
Indeed, Clark’s stat line looked terrific or impressive or important or whatever adjective you might choose. He matched his career highs with 12 points and 6 assists to go with 4 rebounds and 2 turnovers in 37 minutes. He also had 12 points in the victory at Notre Dame and 6 assists in games against Towson, Miami, and Georgia Tech. For the night, Clark made 4 of 9 shots overall and 3 of 8 3-pointers; that matched four made field goals at ND and three made 3’s against Coppin State and Virginia Tech.
Rest assured, none of those other games were on the same stage as Thursday night’s Sweet 16 battle in Louisville. Only VT from that list made this tournament. Yes, the stage is what made Clark’s performance shine even more. In a game that started so late that it bled into Friday morning with the grind of a defensive slugfest as the backdrop, the stat line is only part of the story.
Clark’s steady play amidst the chaos that is March Madness stood out the most. Here’s a freshman in the first Sweet 16 game of his career against a team that had rattled of 10 straight wins to not only play its way into the tournament, but into the second weekend. The Ducks played no one under 6’2” the whole night and their length allowed interchangeable movements on defense. They pressed most of the night too.
If ever there were a recipe for stage fright, that might be it.
Yet, Clark looked calm and confident throughout. Never more so than on his final made shot of the night. Oregon’s Louis King had just buried a 3-pointer during an 11-2 run that pushed the Ducks ahead for the first time in the second half, 45-42. Now just 5:30 of game time stood between the Hoos and a disappointing exit from the NCAA Tournament. On the following possession, however, Clark sprinted off a baseline screen on the right side, settled his feet in front of UVA’s bench, and fired a 3-pointer that hit nothing but net.
Hesitation never entered the equation.
“No, I was open so I was just going to shoot my shot with confidence,” Clark said.
UVA needed that mindset against an Oregon defense that made life difficult as a mixture of man to man and matchup zone. The Cavaliers made just 9 of 33 3-pointers on the night as they found getting the ball into the interior tough and getting shots off near the rim even tougher. The Ducks seemed to stay off of Clark in those situations and he made him pay in a critical moment.
Virginia guard Ty Jerome, who followed with his own 3-pointer minutes later to give the team the lead for good, said he noticed during the game that Oregon was trying to lock up the other guards on the floor before tagging Clark.
“They came out and their plan was to kind of give him the threes,” Jerome said. “Before he shot one, I heard a coach say ‘Give it to him’ and he made it and kind of turned to that bench a little bit. He did a great job of hitting timely shots.”
Timely is a good way to describe Clark’s night overall. While Kyle Guy and De’Andre Hunter both made it into double figures, that duo struggled to make shots consistently. Guy made 4 of 15 shots overall and 2 of 11 from 3-point range, while Hunter made 4 of 13 overall and 1 of 6 3-pointers. Without Clark’s shooting night, the Hoos may not have had enough offense to get the win.
Clark’s assists came at big moments too. Obviously, there’s the big one – he found Jerome for the go-ahead 3-pointer in the waning minutes at nearly the same spot as his own shot. Clark also dished out three in the final 3:35 of the first half when UVA closed on a 20-6 surge to lead at intermission. That included a play at the end of the first half to beat the buzzer. The Ducks trapped hard off a ball screen with the ball in Clark’s hands, but he maintained his poise, slid around the double team, and found Diakite for a layup.
“It was a call. We kind of knew they were going to trap,” Clark said. “Just trying to stay aggressive when they came and trapped me and I found Mamadi and he finished the basket.”
Then there was the end Clark is known for most. He pestered Payton Pritchard for the Ducks for most of the night, which led to a tough outing for the point guard. Pritchard made 3 of 12 shots and just 1 of 6 3-pointers to finish with 11 points. He had 4 assists, but did not get into the lane much to set up easy alley-oop lobs that Oregon often gets.
Generally, Pritchard started to look frustrated with the never-tiring presence of Clark. On his final 3-point attempt of the game, a long look above the top of the key after a weave series produced no cracks in the UVA defense, Pritchard missed way short on his attempt. That’s the type of impact the Hoos have gotten used to this season en route to a program-record 32 wins entering the Elite Eight.
“He’s been tremendous all year, especially as of late, really heating up the ball and keeping guys in front,” Guy said. “He did a great job on a tremendous point guard in Payton, knocked down timely shots. When he was going to the free throw line, told him to ice it and this is what he came to Virginia for.”
