After suffering a heart-breaking loss at the buzzer against Florida State, the Virginia basketball team had a week to stew with the sting. Cavalier coach Tony Bennett wasn’t sure how his team would respond after sitting with that tough loss for that long. The early signs at Louisville were not good, but the Hoos shook it off, took control, and booked a 71-61 win at the Yum! Center.
UVA has won 13 of the last 14 meetings in the series, including the last four.
“That was a hard loss like I talked about in the postgame. We were intrigued with how our guys would respond,” Bennett said. “We tried to give them a couple days off and then prepare as well as we could. We wanted to see how would we respond, would our resiliency bounce up and would we be ready to play, or would we come out flat and deflated? The way we started the game I was a little bit concerned because they got off to a good start and we weren’t quite sharp, bobbled some balls, but I really did like how they responded with their defense in the first half, and then we got some significant contributions off the bench. … But as coaches we were like, here we are, how are we going to respond? I thought that they missed a couple easy ones, but we did not buckle this time. We stayed tough and that is what it is about. That was the difference. We made some plays and lasted.”
Any concern early Saturday was understandable. The Cardinals jumped out to an 8-0 lead and had a pair of layups in the early minutes, including an and-one. Meanwhile, UVA misfired shots and bobbled passes. In the first four minutes, the Hoos missed 4 shots and committed 2 turnovers.
After the first media timeout, however, Virginia went from fizzling to sizzling.
The Cavaliers broke the ice with a Reece Beekman basket out of the timeout and had the game tied at 12-12 within 5 minutes. After a pair of traded buckets, the visitors started to hit a groove. Then with an 18-16 lead entering the final 7 minutes before halftime, UVA uncorked an 18-0 run to lead by 20 points. If you add up the totals after the 8-0 start, Virginia had a 36-9 advantage the rest of the half.
The Hoos shot 57.7% in the first half and had just 4 turnovers. Remember they missed their first 4 shots and had 2 turnovers early too. If you take it from the first media timeout, they shot 68.2% the rest of the half with only 7 missed shots and committed only 2 turnovers. By the end of the game, the Cavaliers posted 51.0% shooting with 10 turnovers. They made 7 of 12 3-pointers (58.3%) and 14 of 18 free throws (77.8%) in the win.
“I think you have to take what the defense gives you,” Bennett said. “I told our guys that was a hard loss on Saturday, but they have improved as the year is going on. They have played some good basketball, improved, and come a long way. Let’s finish this out the right way. finish this out the right way. Florida State plays a little different kind of defense, they force you to do things that a lot of other teams don’t, but today we got some quality looks, got guys to the rim, and had a steadiness about us for most of the game. You take a quality shot with what the defense gives you and that’s what we did today.”
A big lift off the bench helped too. Kadin Shedrick and Kody Stattmann checked in just 3:41 into the game and immediately made an impact. The duo scored 21 of the team’s 36 points in the first half and helped spark that big run into intermission. Shedrick, in particular, caused trouble for the Cards as he went 7-7 with 16 points in the opening half. Stattmann, meanwhile, got a bucket and went 3-4 at the free throw line.
Both finished in double figures. Stattmann matched his career high with 11 points and added 4 rebounds. Shedrick finished with a new career high of 20 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. The Hoos are 9-1 when Shedrick scores in double digits this season.
“We want him to be as good as he can in the little areas, which is who he is. Rim protecting, rebounding, being active defensively,” Bennett said. “What I liked about his performance today, which was a little different than the Duke game, was that he wasn’t just catching alley-oops and finishing. He made some plays where he turned and faced, and he beat a guy off the dribble. He can do some of those things. It was good to see that comfort level and confidence grow. It was good to get some points off the bench and he attacked and used his length well. I guess this is just part of the process of a young player that has not played a lot and is now getting more and more time, but really a good first half from him, but to see Reece and Kadin give us that from two younger guys was nice in this setting.”
Indeed, Beekman had a monster line for Virginia. He posted 15 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals in the win. That was Beekman’s first career double-double and a career high on the boards. That means that Beekman has had double digits in three categories in different games this season – points (Lehigh, Iowa, Clemson, UNC, Virginia Tech, Pitt, NC State, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Duke, and Louisville), rebounds (Louisville), and assists (Louisville, Miami).
Beekman moved up to second on the program’s all-time single season steals list with the 5 steals in Louisville. That split up the top two spots held by Othell Wilson, who had 61 in 1981-82 and the program record 69 in 1983-84. Beekman also leapfrogged Sean Singletary’s 60 steals from 2007-2008.
The sophomore also came through with some critical jumpers to help turn away a comeback attempt by the Cardinals. He went 3-3 on 3-pointers in the game with all of them coming in the final 8 minutes. He made the first two on back-to-back possessions at 7:49 and 7:07 to help offset 3’s from Louisville’s Malik Williams and Noah Locke in the same stretch. The biggest, however, came in the final 3 minutes.
The Cavaliers needed to fend off a 44-point second half from the hosts, who got 24 points from Sydney Curry as he muscled his way around inside and 10 from Williams in his final home game for the Cards. Louisville had chipped away to a 7-point deficit thanks to another Williams’ triple, thrusting the game into the same territory as that FSU loss a week earlier. The Seminoles trailed by 10 points entering the final 3 minutes, but stormed back to shock the Hoos.
Any potential for a similar slide this week ended thanks to Beekman’s final 3. He knocked down an answer to Williams’ shot on the next possession with 2:52 to go to keep the rally at bay.
“I love seeing guys improve, get after it, and understand what we are trying to accomplish,” Bennett said. “I challenged Reece after the Florida State game. There were a couple things that were inconsistent, and I thought he really responded in the right way. We will continue to need that. He got a ton of experience last year and now he’s in his second year here. All those games and understanding what needs to be done for this team on both ends, I think he has a clearer picture of that. The longer you are at a place the more comfortable you get in all areas, so that’s a joy for me to see. Players take steps, improve, and lead and he has a lot of that ability. He just has to keep getting after it the way he is and leading us.”
