In a game reminiscent of the old ACC round-robin slug-of-wars, Virginia and Duke engaged in an intense rematch Wednesday night at the John Paul Jones Arena. The result once again came down to the wire, but this time the Blue Devils made some clutch shots late and prevailed 65-61. The Cavaliers won the first round on a buzzer beater earlier in February.
That’s basically par for the course in the rivalry. Close contests have been the norm in recent years as 7 of the last 9 games have been decided by 4 points or less.
“Another Duke-Virginia game. These games have been great, great games for the conference and for our two programs,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “[We should] really celebrate the talent of both teams and the teamwork, and just like how the last game could have been ours, this game could have been theirs.”
The game played out mostly within a five-point range for either team with the Blue Devils moving out to a slightly larger lead four times in the second half. Duke’s largest lead of the night was eight points with 6:48 to go, but Virginia quickly reeled it back in and set the table for some late-game drama when Kihei Clark cut the deficit to 52-51 with a floater heading into the final 5:02.
The teams exchanged baskets down the stretch, but a flurry from AJ Griffin over 1:35 of action made the difference. Griffin pulled up for a 3-pointer with 3:39 to go that pushed the lead to four, but Armaan Franklin came back with a runner to cut the lead in half. Griffin stepped into another triple on the next possession for a 58-53 lead with 2:40 on the clock. Jayden Gardner countered with a paint bucket, but Griffin drove for his own short shot at 2:05 to keep his team ahead. Reece Beekman responded next with two clutch free throws that left the score at 60-57.
After a jumpball scrum where the arrow kept the ball with Duke, the Cavaliers finally got the stop they needed. They had the ball entering the final minute with a chance to tie or cut the lead to a single point and the final possession likely would have lined up to UVA if things went well on this critical trip. Unfortunately, Clark tried to feed Jayden Gardner near the free throw line but Griffin knocked the ball away, which resulted in a Trevor Keels steal and transition layup. Virginia chipped away at the lead from there, but Keels and Griffin put the game away with three free throws in the final 20 seconds.
Griffin and Keels each posted 13 points with Griffin going for 10 in the final four minutes. Prior to that, Jeremy Roach stepped forward with key buckets when UVA tried to mount a surge. When the Hoos were within 3 at 45-42, Roach drove for a layup. With the score at 49-44, Roach drained a 3-pointer that built that aforementioned 8-point edge. He led Duke with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, which included a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc. That was more than enough to offset another strong defensive outing against Paolo Banchero, who had 8 points on 2-13 shooting. He did have 5 assists.
“It was a hard fought game. Both teams played I thought extremely hard. You could feel that electric atmosphere and all that stuff was there,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “I’ve got to say, sometimes the game comes down to, ‘Can you make a play?’ and they made some really impressive plays. Roach hit some tough shots. Yes, we had a turnover and a couple of breakdowns but Griffin hitting some of those shots and then the plays that they made was tough. … They felt like a lot of big time plays were made down the stretch. We made some plays at their place that just pushed over the edge, and they certainly made a few more here and they were tough defensively, you know around the lane.”
Indeed, the Devils flipped the script from the first meeting. The Cavaliers pulled off the win at Cameron Indoor Stadium thanks in part to a sensational outing offensively. They poured in 52 points in the paint in the Durham victory. The visitors smothered that area in Charlottesville, though. Duke’s Mark Williams blocked 4 shots, while Kadin Shedrick and Francisco Caffaro combined for 2 points. That duo posted 24 points on 11-14 shooting in the earlier matchup. The Blue Devils also battled Jayden Gardner heavily in the first half when he put up only 3 points.
With the game plan clear that the Hoos would not have another heyday in the paint, the hosts needed to find another answer.
Enter Clark. The senior guard came through with an outstanding performance. Clark scored 18 points before halftime on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. The Cavaliers trailed 30-25 at intermission so that shooting display carried the team offensively in the first half and kept the chances of a win intact. He finished with a career-high 25 points and added 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals to his stat line. Those helpers made Clark just the fifth UVA player with 1,000 career points and 500 career assists, joining John Crotty, Sean Singletary, London Perrantes, and Donald Hand.
“He kept us in it, he shot a pull up three, and I told him, ‘if you’re going to do that, you better make it,'” Bennett said with a smile. “But he kept us in it offensively. He was moving hard. He just kind of got in the zone and the guys were finding him and again, I think Duke guarded us pretty hard, so we had to work. It was a physical game. We had to cut and move without the ball and find openings, Kihei was really all we had pretty much early, but I liked our guys in the second half finding the lane a little more and made some plays, Jayden got going and Reece did. That was quite a first half shooting performance by him.”
“I think Reece did a really good job of trying to get me the ball,” Clark said. “Some timely ones in transition. My teammates were just looking for me and I thought we did a good job moving the ball. I think our movement was good which freed me up a little bit. I don’t know, they were going in, so I just kept shooting.”
The Blue Devils changed their defense to deal with Clark’s play. That included tight defense – often from Roach – no matter where the ball was and some switches on a few possessions. They still kept the painted area crowded with other defenders too.
“I thought our defense was excellent, and Clark had a heck of a game,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s as good a guard as there is in the league. That shooting performance he put on in that first half made us change our defense and I really thought the key guy for us in the game was Jeremy [Roach]. Jeremy came in, and not that he stopped Clark, but he defended him. But then his verve on offense really lifted us. Obviously, AJ made some big plays, and we were able to do a couple of things there. But I thought his performance was the differentiator, Jeremy’s performance.”
The Cavaliers got good production from Gardner, Beekman, and Franklin in the second half to give Clark more help.
Gardner found some room in the second half to finish with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists but a lot of that came on mid-range shots that weren’t completely open and he missed some of those too as Duke made sure to be in his area. Gardner surpassed 900 career rebounds during the game. Beekman added 11 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. Beekman took over sixth place on UVA’s single-season steal list with 54. Franklin chipped in 7 points. Beekman and Franklin each made a single 3-pointer.
The Hoos shot 43.6% overall and 40.0% from 3-point range. They hit 15 of 30 shots in the second half, but Duke matched that 50% shooting by making 11 of 22 shots after intermission. The Devils shot 48.0% overall and 41.2% from 3-point range.
In other words, just another close Virginia and Duke game. The Cavaliers currently sit in bubble territory in all the metrics and bracketology predictions so the missed opportunity hurt. They’ll need to close out the regular season with wins in the games against Florida State and Louisville to keep any conversation going ahead of the conference tournament. The Wahoos stand at 17-11 overall and 11-7 in the ACC. After another toe-to-toe battle with the Wahoos, however, Krzyzewski said it is clear that UVA is an NCAA Tournament caliber team.
“There’s no question that Virginia is an NCAA Tournament team,” Krzyzewski. “[With] so many of these numbers, you have to be careful, you need to give the eye test too. They are playing as well as anyone in our conference right now, and have been for about a month. They had back-to-back Miami games and back-to-back Duke games. The two of us are two of the top four teams, record-wise, and you know, they’re 3-1. It’d be a sin if they’re not in the NCAA Tournament. They have to be in. I mean, they’re that good, they’re that good. They really are that good, and Tony [Bennett] is that good too.”
