The Virginia basketball team’s 63-53 win against Georgia Tech on Saturday may not have been a perfect 40-minute performance, but it was a perfect reminder of the program’s consistency. The 10-point victory gave UVA a 10th ACC win for the 10th straight season.
The Cavaliers have also won at least 10 home games for 11 straight years. Three straight home wins to open the month helped secure that mark again this season and a four-game winning streak overall has pushed the Hoos to 16-9 overall and 10-5 in the ACC. Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said Virginia’s consistency puts Tony Bennett’s program in elite company in college basketball.
“Okay, first off, give, obviously Coach Bennett and his staff and their program tons of credit,” Pastner said. “They made some big plays. [Kihei] Clark hit some big shots late, so you got to give them a lot of credit. And obviously [Jayden] Gardner hit some big shots in the first half. And, as I said before, I think Virginia is a blueblood. And the success that they’ve had, I think they’re the same league as the Carolina’s and the Duke’s and the Kentucky’s, and to be able to have a chance to beat a team like that, you got to play really good for 40 minutes. And we had those 10 turnovers, the first half we dug ourselves a little hole.”
Indeed, a strong start and a clutch close turned out to be the winning formula for the Hoos at home.’
The Cavaliers broke an early 2-2 tie and then quickly surged ahead. In the first 10 minutes, they had built an 20-6 advantage thanks to an opening flurry from Jayden Gardner and 3-pointers from Kody Stattmann and Kihei Clark. Gardner had 9 points in the early going, including some shot-clock beaters in soft spots for Georgia Tech’s zone. At one point, Gardner hit short jumpers on three out of four possessions to help grow the Virginia lead.
Later in the half, Gardner got going again. He made two more jumpers and a couple of free throws in the final three minutes of the half as UVA’s advantage bloomed to 30-13. The Yellow Jackets didn’t really have an answer for Gardner in the first half as the repeatedly slid into openings against the visitors’ zone defensive looks. He ended up with 15 points on 6-7 shooting before halftime.
Gardner finished with 26 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocked shots, and 1 steal.
“I was just trying to make continuous, good, back-to-back efforts,” Gardner said when asked about beating the shot clock on a couple of shots. “I think that energizes the whole team and gets the crowd into the game. I’m just trying to do the little things on and off the court to help this team win. That’s all there is to it.”
With Gardner slicing up the zone in the seams, it forced Tech’s hand in the second half as it adjusted to make things more difficult for Gardner to get those comfortable jumper touches. He still worked his way to 11 points after halftime, but it came on a less efficient 4-12 shooting and forced more Cavaliers to find openings. The hosts ended up making just 9 of 27 shots after intermission. With the offense stalled but hanging in there thanks to free throws (UVA finished 21 of 23), what was once a 17-point lead quickly dwindled to single digits and stayed there for most of the final 20 minutes.
Frequently, as Pastner noted, Clark had the answer.
Tech cut the lead to 44-38, but Clark dribbled into the paint and scored. Moments later, the Jackets had it down to four at 46-42, but Clark caught a pass out from Gardner and canned a big 3-pointer. The visitors eventually carved the deficit to 49-47 but Gardner scored on consecutive possessions to stop that threat. Finally with the UVA advantage at 54-49, Reece Beekman drove baseline and fired a pass back to Clark on the wing behind him where the guard nailed another 3-pointer to essentially end the comeback threat.
Clark’s final line: 15 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He made 3 of 7 triples and 4 of 4 free throws to post those points.
“I was taking the shots that came to me,” Clark said. “The shots felt good. I was trying to take what the defense was giving us. Obviously, I knew we could use a big basket too. Reece did a good job of driving on them and he kicked it out. It was a good play.”
Pastner recalled that Clark delivered a similar blow in last season’s meeting in Atlanta. He hit a free throw line jumper to give UVA the lead with 5:26 to go and added a 3-pointer on the next possession too to help Virginia get that win.
“Obviously through our scouting report and in our preparation, the guys know his talent level,” Pastner said. “He just hits big shots. He hit those two 3’s in the second half late. He hit the one late that was really a back-breaker for us. You have to give him credit. He makes tough shots. It was the same thing at our place last year. We probably should have won the game, but he hit a big shot very late, a 3-pointer, so you’ve just got to give him credit. He’s a winner.”
The critical 3-pointers helped Clark get into double figures and that provided the complement to Gardner’s big night. The Hoos got just enough otherwise as Francisco Caffaro chipped in 6 points, while Stattmann and Armaan Franklin added 5 each. Beekman tallied 4 points and 3 assists in only 22 minutes as he dealt with foul trouble for the second straight outing.
The Wahoos needed those contributions to hold off the Yellow Jackets’ rally. GT got itself going on offense with 34 points on 48.7% shooting in the second half, thanks in part to some sharp cutting, handoffs, and ball movement. That helped create 8 layups or dunks after halftime. Michael Devoe led his team with 17 points and 4 assists, while Jordan Usher added 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Rodney Howard at 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists.
That wasn’t enough to stop the recent winning streak for Virginia, though. The Hoos now prepare for the other Tech in Blacksburg on Monday night. The Hokies have won five straight games themselves.
“I think we are touching on some good basketball,” Clark said. “Of course, it feels good to string together a couple of wins, but I think in practice and leading up to this game we kind of lost sight of what got us here. So, we’re just trying to stay together and work on the little things that brought us to this point because we know going forward that we have a chance to pull together some wins and finish this ACC season how we want. We’re just trying to stay together, and take it one game at a time.”
Thought the 2 late threes by Clark were huge! Also, it was important that Gardner kept taking good shots after he went cold in the second half. Has to give him and the team confidence going forward.
Interesting comments from Kihei re: practice being not great
Very interesting comments. It showed the last 30 minutes of the game. Thank goodness they were able to close it out.