The Virginia men’s basketball team faced a little bit of deja vu on Wednesday night. For the second straight game, the Hoos watched an early second half lead evaporate into a deficit on the road. This time around, however, the Cavaliers came through down the stretch to dispatch NC State, 64-57, in Raleigh.
The win improved UVA to 8-1 in the ACC. Every other team in the league currently has two or more losses.
“I talked about trying not to yield,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “I thought we yielded a bit too much and at key times against Virginia Tech and I didn’t sense that tonight. … We made some plays and got to the free throw line through drives and even the threes we missed for the most part were good shots. They showed some, the idea of not yielding. I kept saying that the timeout ‘don’t yield, don’t yield’ and I was glad to see that we hung tough and came away with a good road victory.”
NCSU tested Virginia’s mettle in that regard with a second half surge that was nearly a carbon copy of Virginia Tech’s rally to win last Saturday. In Blacksburg, the Hoos led by 8 points entering the final 13 minutes when the Hokies made a push into the lead with a score in the mid-40’s with about 9 minutes remaining. That lead see-sawed briefly before VT took over and took the win.
Fast forward to Wednesday in Raleigh and a similar pattern unfolded. UVA pulled out to a 9-point lead with 12:28 to go, but the Wolfpack worked their way back into it and took the lead 44-43 with 6:53 to go when DJ Funderburk stole a pass and cruised in for a dunk on the other end. The lead toggled back and forth on the next three possessions, but this time the Wahoos had the response. Once they reclaimed the lead on a pair of free throws from Trey Murphy III, the visitors regrew the lead to as much as 9 points and took care of business down the stretch.
Cavalier senior Sam Hauser said the team learned from Saturday’s situation and used that to get a mid-week win.
“I think we learned from that game,” Hauser said. “We were kind of in the same position, up eight or nine points with about 10 minutes to go. They had their run and instead of folding and giving in we responded with our own run and that was the difference than the Blacksburg game. Definitely did a great job in that aspect in the second half.”
Part of changing the result was changing the mindset on offense. After Bennett called the outing at Virginia Tech too finesse-y in ways, the Hoos had a more assertive response when challenged by the Pack. Hauser said the guards did a great job of attacking downhill and that the players didn’t settle for the first contested driving shot or spot-up jumpers as much. Instead, they repeatedly cycled and attacked the ball so a mix of jumpers, backdoor cuts, and foul-drawing moves to the rim produced the points needed.
In the end, that led to 46.3% shooting overall (19-41) with 11 layups or dunks among the 19 made shots and 22 free throw attempts. The Cavaliers made 20 of those at the stripe (90.9%), including 16 of 18 in the second half. When NCSU took the lead on Funderburk’s dunk and on a jumper by Jericole Hellems during the key stretch, Virginia earned a trip to the line on the ensuing possession both times. Hauser and Murphy each went 2-2 to immediately retake the lead. After a key Hauser 3-pointer in transition and a Kihei Clark layup provided some breathing room, Jay Huff followed up with an and-one trip to the free throw line too.
Hauser and Murphy scored 18 points each with 6-6 nights at the charity stripe as part of the total. They had matching stat lines with 5 rebounds apiece too. Huff, meanwhile, added 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 blocked shot to the cause. Clark checked in with 8 points and 6 assists, while Reece Beekman had 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 assist. Those totals from the starters were the only points for the Wahoos in the contest.
“Really, I know for me, I just took it personal,” Murphy said of the finesse-y feedback. “And I was like, ‘I’m going make sure that he can’t, I can’t give him a reason to call me soft.’ We all just took it personal and losing Virginia Tech, that hurts a lot. We just learned, it humbled us a little bit because we’re on a roll, and we just knew we had to come out and really fight this game.”
“You never want your coach to call you soft, so you take that pretty personally,” Hauser said. “We responded pretty well tonight. We were physical. Obviously, some things to clean up and work on still but we were physical, we were tough minded and that’s why we came out on top tonight.”
NC State countered with a strong night in the paint where it scored 30 points. Funderburk and Manny Bates posted 9 points each as part of that effort, while Hellems did a lot of scoring from different spots on the floor with 23 points. The Cavaliers decided to post trap at times and that disrupted things with turnovers or missed opportunities. They also kept the other threats mostly in check as Dereon Seabron (1-6), Thomas Allen (1-6), and Braxton Beverly (2-5) finished 3 of 17 combined with only one 3-pointer among them. The Wolfpack finished at 43.4% shooting overall and 28.6% shooting from 3-point range.
Defending the paint is one area from the win that will continue to get attention from the coaches.
“We trapped, we got a couple key turnovers and then we were getting, it’s on, it’s off,” Bennett said. “I told Jay, Jay did some really good things offensively, I said ‘but you can’t let him duck you in and we talk about not letting the ball get fed from the top.’ I thought, Jay’s had some good games, but I wanted him to be harder to score against on the interior and use his length. Now those are good, big guys and they got nice jump hooks, but I wish it wasn’t quite as much of a bucket and a couple times where they got one. We need to keep working. Again, the trap is always there but they flank it was shooters so that was an on off thing and that’s got to get better.”
