Virginia Slices Up Orange Zone, Rolls Past Syracuse

Virginia is 7-0 in the ACC.
Sam Hauser posted 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists for the Hoos. ~ Photo courtesy Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Media Relations

At its best, the Syracuse basketball team’s zone can cause hesitation and stagnation from opposing offenses. Virginia was having none of that on Monday night at the John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers confidently moved themselves through the zone and decisively moved the ball to carve up the Orange’s signature defense and ran away to a 81-58 win as a result.

The Hoos have won three of their last four ACC games with at least 80 points on the board, a clip that makes them hard to beat. UVA is 35-1 when scoring at least 80 under Tony Bennett.

“Obviously, I can’t complain and I thought when you make shots that helps but I liked our movement, how we shared the ball, took a lot of threes and made a lot [of threes]” Bennett said. “We got a variation of some high-low pass seams, some back cuts, some decent dribble penetration. … Again, sharing the ball and when Sam [Hauser], Trey [Murphy] and Jay [Huff] are shooting like that and the other guys are making good decisions. I thought it felt right.”

That trio certainly had a lot to do with Virginia’s successful zone-busting effort. They made 21 of 41 shots (51.3%), including 12 of 24 3-pointers (50%) to combine for 58 points. Hauser and Huff once again teamed up to frustrate an opposing defense, while Murphy continued to convert long-range shots at a high clip.

Hauser got it going from 3-point range early and he never let up. He made 7 of 16 shots with all 7 made field goals coming from downtown (he missed all three of his two-point attempts) to finish with 21 points. That’s back-to-back 20-point games for the redshirt senior. He added 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 blocked shot. Murphy had it going behind the arc too. He posted 4-10 3-point shooting plus a pair of dunks on alley-oop passes to finish with 16 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists.

Huff, meanwhile, posted career-high totals with 21 points and 12 rebounds. He also had 2 assists, 2 blocked shots, and 1 steal. The senior has a nine-game double-digit scoring streak going in ACC play dating back to last season. With his 10th multi-block game of this season, Huff took over sole possession of fifth place on the program’s all-time blocks list. He made 8 of 11 shots in this game with most of that damage coming on dunks at the rim, though he did make his only 3-point attempt of the game as well.

“I thought our green team or our scout team earlier in the week, it was a pretty good look,” Hauser said. “They played really hard and made us work for really good shots so I think that helped. Kind of in the flow of the game you get a feel for it, you can understand where to attack it, and where you might be able to get an open shot. Throughout the game were able to find pockets or windows [and] were able to get a good shot off or just make a make a winning play. We made enough of those tonight to win.”

Virginia is 7-0 in the ACC.
Jay Huff slams home a bucket as part of a career-high 21 points. ~ Photo courtesy Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Media Relations

The winning plays often took the form of assists. The Cavaliers were moving the ball around to open spots and getting good looks all night long. Whether it was through high post feeds, ball screens into dribble penetration, or other passes,the ball never stuck and Syracuse’s zone never settled in as a result. In the end, UVA recorded 23 assists on 29 made shots. Every Virginia player that received 9 or more minutes had multiple assists, another sign of how well the team shared the ball.

The starting backcourt duo of Kihei Clark and Reece Beekman had a lot to do with that again. Clark tallied a new season-high 9 assists to go with 4 points and 2 steals. Beekman dished out 5 assists and joined the aforementioned trio in double digits with 10 points too. He also had 5 rebounds. Tomas Woldetensae added 2 helpers in 9 minutes too.

The Wahoos ended up at 49.2% shooting (29-59) overall and 45.2% 3-point shooting (14-31).

“A lot of our offense has just been moving the ball around,” Huff said. “We don’t over dribble all that much. Especially against a team like Syracuse, you can’t, because they collapse and have guys with long arms and can bump the ball away from you. We would move it into the middle of the zone and then kick it back out. I think we were really able to do that well in a way that just led to no dribble shots, which was really big.”

With the offense clicking, the Virginia defense took care of the rest. In holding Cuse below 60 points, UVA allowed just 37.3% shooting (22-59) and shut down the 3-point line at 20.8% (5-24). Quincy Guerrier led his team with 16 points, but needed 16 shots to get to that total. He added 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Alan Griffin chipped in 13 points and 8 rebounds.

The Orange took a lot of quick shots at times and when that wasn’t going, Virginia shut down any additional offense by allowing only 4 offensive rebounds. The Cavaliers posted a season-high 41 rebounds as a result. In fact, other than some issues for a brief stretch against a press that contributed to 13 turnovers, UVA had complete control of this contest on both ends of the floor.

“I think we’ve come a long way,” Huff said of Virginia’s defense. “There were games where we let teams like that get out in transition a little bit more and get a few more open shots and they made some very not open shots so congrats to them. That was very impressive. But I think for the most part we were able to stifle their transition and we made them have to play in the halfcourt. I think that was really big for us and I still think that we can improve. You know, there’s still things that we can do better, which is always really cool about this team.”

The combination of potent offense and a defense that continues to improve is proving tough for ACC opponents to stop so far this season. The Wahoos are now 7-0 in ACC play and have won 15 straight conference games dating back to last season. Virginia Tech is up next with the game scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. in Blacksburg.

Final Stats