Florida State scored first and last Saturday at the John Paul Jones Arena so while the Virginia basketball team built a double-digit lead in between, that wasn’t enough to secure a critical home win. The last shot stung the most. With only one second on the clock after what appeared to be a game-winner from Armaan Franklin, the Seminoles completed a long pass and a long shot from Matthew Cleveland stunned the Hoos 64-63.
It marked the first time this season that the Cavaliers lost back-to-back games. UVA fell to 10-6 at home overall and 6-4 at home in ACC play, a rare uptick in defeats at JPJ in a single season. This one brought a tough ending to Senior Day for the Hoos, who stand at 17-12 entering the regular season at Louisville.
“I thought we were on the edge all night with our defense and then they started scoring quickly,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “They kept just driving it right by us. We didn’t keep a guy in front, gave up a couple key offensive rebounds. And then they’re always [challenging] with their length. I thought we were playing a little unsound and we talked about it at one turnover. … So some unsound play, a couple careless turnovers, not careless because they’re always scratching the passing lane with their length and athleticism, and then us not being able to get stops. Now they made some nice plays driving down the stretch and again [Matthew Cleveland] hit an unbelievable shot with a second left. … That’s a tough way on your Senior Night for you Kihei [Clark] and Kody [Stattmann] to go out but they certainly made some plays as we just talked about down the stretch. I felt with the turnovers and the ability to not just get a stop cost us dearly. We’ve been close on the edge in a lot of games. We won some close ones. And you can’t play with fire like that.”
Indeed, UVA built a 10-point lead with 3:26 to go in the game and appeared to have control, but the defense faltered late in a major way. For the second straight game, one player lit up the Hoos single-handedly late and it proved costly. On Wednesday night, Duke’s AJ Griffin scored 10 points in the final 3:39 to lift his team to victory. On Saturday, Cleveland pulled off similar fireworks as he scored 10 points in the final 2:06.
That included the buzzer-beater to end it. Virginia defended the inbounder, but the Noles set a screen on that defender to create some vision. That left the Hoos in a solo coverage down the floor. Cleveland caught a long baseball style pass from Harrison Prieto, turned from well beyond the 3-point line, and snapped off a shot over Franklin. It had a chance from the moment it left his hand and splashed through to silence the arena.
“Obviously, that was an exceptional shot that Matt [Cleveland] made at the end,” State coach Leonard Hamilton said. “Now I know you guys may find this interesting, but we work on that every day. We’ll warm up and shoot free throws, then we go into our shooting drills, and every day at the end, we make halfcourt shots. And that was just one of those fortunate shots for us that went in. … It was a great game, I’m especially proud of our guys. We’ve had ups and downs, and to deal with all the adversity that we’ve had to deal with this year and for them to come into a team as well coached and talented as this team, I feel very fortunate to come away with a victory.”
While the last shot delivered the decisive blow, the visitors dented the defense late in the game to be in that position. The Seminoles scored on eight of their final nine possessions to steal the win at the end. The only possession they didn’t put up points wasn’t really a full possession either. They forced a Virginia turnover from Clark with 15 seconds to go and RayQuan Evans controlled the loose ball long enough to attempt a pass ahead, but that pass was stolen by Stattmann.
At that moment, the Hoos appeared to be in great position. They led 60-59 with Franklin headed to the free throw line with only 13 seconds to go. Franklin made the first free throw, but missed the second to give FSU life. Cleveland rebounded the miss, pushed the ball ahead, and scored on his own to tie the score at 61-61 with 6.1 seconds remaining.
Still, Virginia had a chance to try to go win it. Franklin inbounded the ball to Kadin Shedrick against Florida State’s press and got the return pass already on the move. He dribbled in a straight line up the middle of the floor and pulled up from the free throw line for a go-ahead jumper that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Moments later, that turned to silence as the Seminoles drew up and executed the final sequence for Cleveland’s winner.
That fortunate play to end it may not have bothered Bennett as much as the other possessions down the stretch or the defensive effort overall. In the final five minutes, the Hoos gave up four layups, two short floaters, and three free throws. In the end, the Seminoles shot 47.4% overall (27-57) and 50.0% in the second half (14-28). They scored 34 points in the paint, including many during that late surge.
Cleveland’s closing kick left him with 20 points, while Prietro added 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists.
“Cleveland got going a little bit and I think we probably just relaxed [after we had the 10-point lead],” Stattmann said. “That’s something that we shouldn’t do in the last few minutes of the game. It’s the time where we need to lock in more and shut him down, but he got going a bit and that hurt us.”
“I think that we kind of broke down on the defensive end the last three or so minutes of the game, they hit I think their last eight shots,” Franklin said. “Like Kody said, that’s the time we need to lock in even more and fill in our gaps. At the same time they hit some tough shots.”
While the defense fell apart late, the offense didn’t help the cause. The Cavaliers had a chance to create some distance halfway through the second half when they built an 11-point lead following a dunk by Shedrick at the 10:56 mark. They didn’t score again for four minutes, however, and State climbed back in the game the first time.
Then the hosts had the second chance to put it away after Jayden Gardner scored four straight points that made it 56-46 at the 3:26 mark. FSU was able to make the comeback from there in part because UVA missed a layup and two free throws while also committing two turnovers.
The Wahoos shot 39.3% (22-56) for the game, which included 23.5% from 3-point range (4-17). Gardner led Virginia with 21 points and 6 rebounds, while Franklin posted 13 points with a trio of 3-pointers. Reece Beekman had 8 points and 2 assists, but fouled out. Clark added 7 points and 6 assists. Francisco Caffaro tallied 7 points and 11 rebounds.
“Yes we lost on that shot, but when you drop a tough game like that you look at the opening play of the game, we didn’t even know who we had, that’s a bucket. Some of those things should just not happen and some of the careless plays, those sting because of that stuff,” Bennett said. “We have to be sharp in those areas most of the time, if not all the time.”
