The Virginia basketball team wasted little time turning its Senior Day into a Coronation Day too. The Cavaliers took the lead 19 seconds into the game and easily dispatched Louisville 75-60 to claim a share of the ACC Regular Season Championship.
UVA has won the regular season conference title six times in the last 10 years, including three times in the five-year careers of Kihei Clark and Francisco Caffaro. The Hoos won only one other title since 2000 before the arrival of Tony Bennett.
“So happy for everyone because everyone’s a part of this,” Bennett said. “In a league where there’s 20 games, in this league there’s so much parity and I know we shared it … but you’ve got to last. Again, I think the league is better than a lot of people say it is and to be able to be one of those teams after 20 games to get a championship, I’m very thankful and that’s a result certainly of these young men. That’s a goal you want to get and they’ll get to have that put on a banner.”
Virginia left little doubt of the outcome in this one as it led by double figures for the final 32:19. The lead never fell below 13 points in the second half.
Fittingly, Clark started the run-away party with a 3-pointer on the first possession. He caught the ball on the left wing and let it fly for a 3-0 lead to the delight of the John Paul Jones Arena crowd. He turned to fans with a wide smile shortly after making the shot. He finished with 6 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds in his final home game. Coach Bennett presented a commemorative ball to Clark after the game, though he did forgo Senior Day activities after participating last season.
The rest of the Senior Day participants came through in the moment too.
Armaan Franklin got in on the fun immediately with two free throws and a 3-pointer in the first three minutes. He stuck another triple at the 12:19 mark that made it 18-8 and pushed the lead to double figures for good. He ended up with 16 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal. Jayden Gardner, who was openly emotional during the pregame festivities, poured in 16 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 blocked shot. That included four buckets in the first six minutes of the second half. The duo combined for 13-of-20 shooting (65.0%).
Three more seniors had moments in the spotlight too. Ben Vander Plas had 7 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 steals with a traditional three-point play in the mix during the second half. Francisco Caffaro contributed 6 points, 1 rebound, and 1 steal to the win. He made both field goal attempts and both free throw attempts to go a perfect 6-6 on the day. Chase Coleman capped off the fun with a 3-pointer in the final minute that sent the arena into a familiar frenzy.
“It was wonderful and it’s kind of uncanny, you go back to Thomas Rogers knocking down a 3 against Syracuse when we won our first regular season championship and then to see Chase do that [too],” Bennett said.
“Since the shot happened, I haven’t heard the last of it from my teammates,” Coleman said. “So I don’t think it’s going to go out of my mind until maybe after the ACC Tournament or something like that because I know I won’t hear the end of it.”
The Cavaliers got good outings from three underclassmen as well. Junior Reece Beekman tallied 5 points, 11 assists, and 2 steals with 0 turnovers. Freshmen Isaac McKneely and Ryan Dunn posted their second strong performance of the week too. McKneely scored 7 points with 1 assist and 1 steal, while Dunn added 9 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 blocked shot. In two games this week, the duo combined for 38 points and 9 rebounds on an efficient 14-20 shooting (70.0%).
Virginia as a team finished at 58.0% (29-50) shooting overall, a trend that carried over from the final 35 minutes of the Clemson game (47.8%/22-46 after an 0-8 start). The Hoos still haven’t revived their 3-point shooting completely after a 6-18 (33.3%) performance against Louisville, but they did go 5-12 in the first half (41.7%). They logged 25 assists on 29 made baskets in the winning finale.
UVA will carry some momentum from the two-game winning streak into the ACC Tournament next week, but the offensive slump that preceded the last two games did not have the Hoos too worried anyway.
“You have whatever you want to call a bad day or just simply not playing too good or whatever you want to call it is going to happen, it’s sports so you’re going to miss one day and you’re going to make it the next day,” Caffaro said. “We’ve got a great team. We play pretty good defense so I think that always helps. It’s a combination of everything not just offense, but it’s always good to make shots and we started off pretty strong today so that helped a lot for sure.”
After pushing the Wahoos to the brink in a three-point loss on its home court, Louisville struggled to create a repeat showing in the rematch. The Virginia defense had a lot to do with that in the first half.
The Cavaliers covered El Ellis all over the floor before intermission, holding him to 4 points on 0-4 shooting. That was part of a 6-18 shooting half (33.3%) that saw the visitors commit 8 turnovers as well. They had much better luck in the second half en route to 40 points on 14-28 shooting, but the game was well out of reach for the entirety of that half. The Cards scored 15 points in the final six minutes.
Ellis eventually got some production on the board with 14 points and 2 assists. Mike James had a big day with 24 points on 7-10 shooting as well.
“I just think we were tentative on the offensive end. They were pressuring us and we were letting the ball stick,” James said. “With Virginia, you can’t let the ball stick, you’ve got to swing it, drive, swing, swing because they play Pack-Line defense so they’re already in gaps. Once we started doing better at that in the second half, we started scoring better.”
That’s not an uncommon experience against for opponents at the John Paul Jones Arena, though. Louisville became the 42nd consecutive ACC opponent to fall short of 70 points against the Hoos at home. With that being a big part of the equation, the Cavaliers completed a 10-0 run through ACC play at home for the first time since the league expanded to 20 league games.
Virginia went 15-1 at home this season overall. The Hoos secured 23 or more wins for the ninth time in Bennett’s tenure as well. They will enter the ACC Tournament as the No. 2 seed and await their spot in the NCAA Tournament field as well. With the ACC Regular Season Championship in hand as well, it all adds up to a bounce-back regular season after finishing sixth in the conference last season and landing in the NIT last season.
“They all just tried to work really hard,” Bennett said. “I think going to Italy, coming together saying how can we improve individually in our games, collectively they’ve been very coachable, and then the additions of Ryan and I-Mac, those guys, and Ben, … all three of those have given us a little more depth and experience. I didn’t know what to expect with Ryan and Isaac being first years but they’ve stepped into some good opportunities and battled. I think it’s rewarding for those guys [that returned] and that’s why they should feel good about it, then OK now we’re on to the next [step] but it’s hard to do as I mentioned in a 20-game league that has I think a lot of parity.”
