Facing the February doldrums during the conference grind, the Virginia basketball team hoped that a return home to the John Paul Jones Arena might provide a needed pick-me-up. Instead, NC State took control of the game early, shook off a UVA rally, and pulled away late to win 68-61 on Wednesday night. The Cavaliers are 13-2 in the last 15 regular season games in the series, but the Wolfpack has won in back-to-back years at the JPJ.
Virginia has lost three straight games after defeats last week at Florida State and Duke. If Hoo fans feel like that’s a strange feeling in February, they’re right. Those three losses match the total February losses of the last three seasons combined. It’s the first time for back-to-back defeats in February since 2017 when that team dropped four straight in the shortest month.
“We haven’t become gritty enough or tough enough to lean on our defense to hold us in there,” Cavalier coach Tony Bennett said. ”We did it a couple times this year, but not consistently enough. They started going at us, you look at the points in the paint and those things, that was discouraging but we still had some chances. Then they hit the three of the board at the end of the shot clock and I think was a three-point game, that hurt to maybe have a chance. NC State is playing good ball and they’re a talented team and if you don’t play sound, good basketball you’ll get beat in this league and we’re certainly finding that to be the truth.”
Certainly, the defense had some issues with the Wolfpack but the offense did too. The combination was a sluggish performance for UVA that lacked rhythm for long stretches. The first signs of the long night ahead popped up almost immediately.
NC State opened the game with a 17-4 advantage over the first nine minutes. The visitors tallied three 3-pointers, three layups, and a dunk in that opening salvo. Those quality shots were part of a 7-11 shooting start (it eventually became 9-13 and 69.2% shooting out of the gates). Virginia, meanwhile, couldn’t put the ball in the hoop on the other end. The hosts opened 2-13 shooting (15.4% at the start), which included six missed 3-pointers with even the best shooters Sam Hauser, Trey Murphy III, and Jay Huff misfiring from deep.
Unfortunately for the Wahoos, the shooting never really came around other than some brief flurries. In the end, they shot 37% overall (20-54) and 28% from 3-point range (7-25). The only things that saved the performance from being a complete dud was a perfect 14-14 at the free throw line and a last-ditch 3-point barrage from Hauser as he made a trio of triples in the final four minutes.
In the end, Hauser led Virginia with 21 points on 7-16 shooting, while Huff recorded a stat line of 19 points, 11 rebounds, 5 blocked shots, and 3 steals. Huff made just 1 of 6 3-pointers, but did knock down 6 of 6 free throws. Kihei Clark chipped in 11 points on 2-7 shooting, but a 6-6 night at the stripe. He had 7 assists. The Cavaliers got minimal scoring contributions elsewhere as Murphy and Reece Beekman had matching 1-5 shooting lines and Casey Morsell went 0-3. Justin McKoy had 4 points and 3 rebounds.
The best offensive stretch of the night for the Hoos bridged the halves. Huff scored six straight points late in the first half that helped cut the deficit to 29-23 at intermission and Hauser hit back-to-back 3’s to quickly tie it at the start of the second half. Virginia even briefly took the lead at 35-33, but didn’t hold on to the momentum.
“We had some breakdowns [after taking the lead] like in the way we started the game,” Hauser said. “I think those [breakdowns] started to come back and creep back into the game in the second half. I think that’s what led to North Carolina State regaining the lead. Obviously you can’t get the whole idea from the start, though, regardless if shots are going in or not. We got to be better on defense.”
“We got guys different shots and I thought we got really quality looks early and we missed some,” Bennett said. “Our defense sort of let us down but I thought offensively we did miss some shots that were quality looks and sometimes you just got to make shots. I thought it was better than the Florida State game. I need to look at it, I may take this back, but I didn’t think the offense was a major problem. I mean it wasn’t great but, I think when they wanted to get a bucket inside or take advantage of a breakdown, that’s what hurt us … in this kind of game. There’s only so much you can do offensively when teams are switching, you’ve got to make some plays and we tried to exploit it in ways that are best for us but guys get a little cold from the outside, that’s kind of been one of the things that we struggled with.”
Bennett’s frustrations with the defensive end of the floor were focused on the paint. The Wolfpack scored 30 points in the paint with 11 layups and 3 dunks accounting for the bulk of the damage. Many of those close-range shots came with little resistance and that’s the part that likely bugged Bennett the most. Shakeel Moore created several straight-line drive buckets, while DJ Funderburk and Manny Bates regularly caught passes with two feet deep in the paint. Huff’s 5 blocked shots kept those numbers from being even worse.
Throw in 3 3-pointers from Cam Hayes and a 23-28 shooting night at the line, much of which came late with the Wahoos fouling to try to extend the game, and that was more than enough offense with UVA’s struggles. Hayes led his team with 16 points. Funderburk added 14 points and 6 rebounds, while Moore had 12 points. Jericole Hellems and Bates had 8 each. NCSU finished at 45.5% shooting overall (20-44) and 41.7% from 3-point range (5-12).
That effort led to State’s second straight win at the JPJ. That snapped a 15-game home winning streak for UVA in the process. Virginia gets several days to try to find the reset button after this three-game losing streak. The Hoos are scheduled to host Miami on Monday in a 6 p.m. tipoff before heading to Louisville in the regular season finale on March 6 at 4 p.m.
“It was by no means a happy locker room, but we’ve been in bad situations before,” Huff said. “We will be alright and, obviously, we’re frustrated, but we’re just we’re all trying to figure out what we can do better and what things that we need to fix.”
