The Virginia basketball team hoped returning to the John Paul Jones Arena could steady the ship after two road losses last week. While the start of Tuesday night’s game didn’t immediately calm the rough waters of late, the Hoos did eventually find comfort at their home port as they secured a 64-57 win against Clemson.
The victory pushed UVA to 22-6 overall and 14-5 in the ACC. That clinched a top 4 seed and double bye at the ACC Tournament next week. The Cavaliers also remain in the race for a share of the ACC Regular Season Championship as they sit just one game back from Pittsburgh and in a tie with Miami.
“Our defense got us some offense early. We just worked, made ’em earn it – it was far from perfect, but it was what we needed,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Then we tried to move hard and work hard offensively and just be true to who we are. We weren’t going to score 90 against Clemson. They’re playing terrific ball. We just had to do what we could do to the best of our abilities and trust that and that’s what I thought the guys did.”
UVA did have to shake off a slow start in order to get to the winner’s circle.
The two teams dueled to a scoreless tie for the first three minutes but after missing its first four shots Clemson took a 5-0 lead with two free throws and the game’s first field goal, a 3-pointer from Brevin Galloway with 15:58 on the clock. The Hoos missed again on their next possession to open the game with an 0-8 shooting string that matched the recent struggles offensively for the team.
That’s when Virginia found a way for its defense to help its offense. Ryan Dunn, who had entered the game a little more than a minute before, blocked Galloway on a drive and took off for the other end. Reece Beekman lofted an alley-oop pass that Dunn turned into a layup and a traditional 3-point play as he drew a foul and made the free throw. Following an Armaan Franklin layup and two Jayden Gardner free throws, Beekman created his own defense-to-offense play with a steal and run-out dunk.
Those two plays contributed to a 17-2 surge from the Hoos that turned a 5-0 deficit into a 17-7 lead. That left the Tigers in catch-up mode for the rest of the game and they could never fully close the gap.
“I think the first couple of minutes, we were getting great shots throughout the whole game, they just weren’t falling,” Dunn said. “I knew stuff was going to fall. Once I got that block, I just started to run and this kind of thing happened at Boston College, Reece threw it, and I just tried to go get it and make a play. But I don’t think I needed the spark, I think the shots were going to fall and they fell throughout the game.”
Indeed, after the missing the first 8 shots of the night, Virginia finally found its offensive footing again after a four-game search party. The Hoos made 10 of their final 20 shots in the first half and then made 12 of 26 shots in the second half. So while the game-long shooting percentage landed at 40.7% (22-54), the hosts were 47.8% (22-46) over the final 35 minutes of action.
That helped other parts of the box score resemble the better games from earlier in the season. The Hoos logged 16 assists on the 22 made field goals with only 8 turnovers. They had five players with at least 7 points, which included four in double figures. Franklin, McKneely, and Jayden Gardner all posted 12 points, while Dunn added 10 points to the ledger as well. Gardner also had 9 rebounds, while Dunn added 5 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 blocked shot. Beekman filled up the stat sheet with 7 points, 8 assists, 4 steals, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. Kihei Clark did not score from the floor but finished with 5 points on free throws to go with 6 assists, 2 steals, and a blocked shot.
The Cavaliers still did not get going from 3-point range with a 5-19 shooting performance there (26.3%), but they did do better at the free throw line (15-22/68.2%) than some recent games that saw outings below 57% (Duke, Louisville, and UNC). If you throw a rough night for Ben Vander Plas as he missed all four of his attempts, the rest of the team shot 83.3% (15-18). That included making 7 of 9 free throws in the final two minutes of the game.
More movement, including heavier use of the Sides blocker-mover scheme familiar to Virginia fans, seemed to help the team find a little bit of rhythm and generate a better night offensively than in recent contests.
“We knew Clemson was going to be physical on our screens and try to bump us off our cuts so we were just cutting hard,” McKneely said. “We worked really hard the past couple of days in practice on Sides and I thought it was really flowing. Got off to a little bit of a slow start, but I thought once we got it rolling, our offense was clicking and hopefully we can carry that into these next few games.”
The Tigers had a similar pattern with a slow start and then a better second half. They missed their first four shots but had more success later in the game. They made 14 of 27 shots after intermission (51.9%) to stay in touch on the scoreboard when Virginia tried to pull away midway through the second half. In fact, after UVA grew the lead to 14 points with 12:46 to go, Clemson put together a stretch where it made 8 of 9 shots with only 1 turnover mixed in. The Hoos were matching that output on the offensive end to limit the potential damage.
PJ Hall, Hunter Tyson, and Chase Hunter were the leaders offensively. Hall had 19 points and 9 rebounds, while Tyson added 17 points and 9 rebounds. Hunter tallied 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Tyson made 6 of 16 shots and Hunter made 3 of 10 so the Hoos’ defense did cause some problems. Clemson shot 41.8% overall (23-55) and 31.8% from 3-point land (7-22). The visitors had just 5 free throws (4-5) and recorded both 11 turnovers and 11 assists. In the end, the Hoos did enough to keep the Tigers in check after they had scored 90 points or more in three recent victories over Florida State, Syracuse, and NC State.
Bennett said he appreciated the effort level and competitiveness from his team on both ends of the floor.
“You’re not going to reinvent yourself. You maybe add some different lineups, put little tweaks here and there, we did a couple different things offensively, but nothing too new and we’re trying to be as good as we can,” Bennett said. “I was proud of how hard the guys played. As I said, it was a joy to watch them compete, just like it was for me against Carolina with a different result.”
“The Tigers had a similar pattern as the visitors”?
Similarly timed droughts and runs.
Oops. That reads oddly. Meant similar as the visiting team, but that reads like they were the home team. Corrected.