The Virginia basketball team knew that road challenges filled the schedule in January. On Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, the Hoos rose to the occasion again and picked up a 66-61 victory to complete the season sweep of the Panthers. That’s the third win in four road games this month.
The Cavaliers have won 15 of the last 16 games in the series, including an 8-3 record in Pittsburgh.
“I wrote on the board before, you’ve got to last in this game and then when you last and you’re in there, you’ve got to outlast them,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. “This is pretty much how it is for us. Max effort for as long as we can. I thought we played well against Wake Forest and then we didn’t finish great. … It was a little shaky. I think I’ve used this before, we’ve got to become the Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down if the older people remember that. When it gets a little rough, we’ve gotta try to steady it.”
To get this one in the win column, UVA consistently built leads in the second half and then held Pitt at arm’s length on the scoreboard. In fact, other than a forward-fueled flurry from the Panthers shortly after intermission, the Hoos led for all but 33 seconds of the game’s final 21:45.
Virginia held off the hosts time after time in the second half because several different players came through with some key plays offensively. In the first four minutes after halftime, Kadin Shedrick stepped forward with 8 of the team’s first 10 points. That included a pair of short jumpers in the paint when Pittsburgh flipped to a zone defense. The first broke a 31-31 tie at the 17:28 mark. The second gave UVA the lead back at 35-34 after a traditional 3-point play briefly pushed the Panthers in front.
The Cavaliers built a 7-point lead after Shedrick’s scoring surge, but the hosts rallied. When the lead dwindled to a single point, Jayden Gardner answered with a short jumper at the 9:20 mark and Francisco Caffaro slammed home a dunk a minute later. Kody Stattmann followed with a layup and Kihei Clark added a 3-pointer to quickly push the lead to 10 at 54-44 with 7:29 remaining. The Panthers repeatedly went to the free throw line in the final 3:30 to cut the deficit to a single possession one more time at 62-59, but Armaan Franklin made a short shot off the glass to end the threat in the final 30 seconds.
While those varying responses came from different players, Reece Beekman’s fingerprints were all over the victory. He frequently made plays to keep Virginia in the lead. Of the baskets mentioned above, Beekman logged assists on a Shedrick shot, on Caffaro’s dunk, on Gardner’s jumper, on Clark’s 3-pointer, and on Franklin’s bank shot. He also had a layup and a dunk to help build the 7-point lead in the early stages of the second half plus two more layups in the final 3:03 to prevent a full Pitt comeback.
Beekman finished with a stellar stat line of 19 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, and 1 steal. He made 8 of 11 shots and that included 3 of 5 3-pointers. That’s a new career high for assists and matches his career high for 3-pointers and blocks.
“As I’ve said, probably the last month and a half, the last handful of games, six or seven games, he’s really trending in the right direction,” Bennett said. “Seeing him knock down some of those shots, slash and get to the lane – he made a heck of a pass to Armaan, the finish Armaan had to help us when we really needed it. I’m proud of him. Again, he’s just in his second year and a lot of opportunities, a lot getting thrown at him but he’s continuing to grow and playing a lot of minutes. That’s what you love to see as a coach, the maturity factor, when guys get more and more reps and they start having a level of belief in themselves and are clear on what they need to do to help the team and he’s becoming like that.”
“It feels good because I know I’ve been working this season just improving my offensive game and so it’s just finally all coming together with offense and defense, it’s a good thing to see,” Beekman said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network.
With Beekman leading the way, the Wahoos shot 50% (27-54) overall thanks to a scorching second half of 60% (15 of 25). They made 23.5% of their 3’s (4-17) and 66.7% of their free throws (8-12).
UVA ended up with three players in double figures. Gardner posted 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. He made 5 of 9 shots and 4 of 5 free throws in the game. Shedrick matched his career high with 12 points and added 3 rebounds with 2 blocked shots. He went 6-6 shooting in the game. Clark finished with 7 points, 6 assists, and 3 rebounds, while Franklin chipped in 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.
Virginia needed all of that to get the road win thanks to the play of Pittsburgh’s John Hugley and the hosts successfully creating free throws late in the game. The Panthers also shot 50% (21-42), but did a lot of scoring at the free throw line where they hit 18 of 22 attempts for 81.8%.
Hugley carried a lot of the load offensively with 23 points from 7-14 shooting and 8-9 shooting at the free throw line. He also had 7 rebounds and 7 turnovers with 0 assists. He gave UVA problems with physical play around the paint and helped get Caffaro and Shedrick in foul trouble as a result. Both fouled out. The Cavaliers gave Hugley problems too though, bothering him with post traps that led to a lot of those turnovers and drawing two offensive fouls by holding ground in post defense.
Jamarius Burton, Femi Odukale, and Mouhamadou Gueye provided most of the other production for the hosts. Burton posted 12 points (4-6 free throws), 4 rebounds, and 1 assist. Odukale tallied 10 points (4-5 free throws), 3 rebounds, and 3 assists. Gueye added 8 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block. Ultimately, the Panthers’ struggles with turnovers proved too tough to overcome though. They had 15 turnovers, which accounted for 25.9% of their 58 possessions.
“We just said good players like [Hugley], they have to earn everything and for the most part that was the case,” Bennett said. “They were trying to go inside, they were trying to crack the paint off the dribble, and we had to hang in there. I’m sure there’s areas where can improve like every game, but they did outlast them to give them the message before the game and I was proud of them the way they got after it and got a nice road victory.”
