The Virginia basketball team’s history with North Carolina at the ACC Tournament in Greensboro had not gone well to be kind. The Hoos entered Thursday night’s game 0-6 against the Tar Heels in the Gate City, after all, but they exited with a 68-59 win to zap that zero.
The Cavaliers earned a spot in the semifinals for the seventh time in the last nine conference tournaments with the victory. They won the event in 2014 in Greensboro and 2018 in Brooklyn.
“I thought we were running good, tough offense. Our guys were screening well, we got some nice drives, and I just thought it was kind of a slugfest in a way as to who was going to be last standing, but you have to answer,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said of holding off North Carolina. “They made some big plays. I thought our defense was really good, but you have to answer, and our guys stayed within themselves, took the shots that were there. I don’t know how many turnovers we had, six total, but for the most part we were doing a good job, didn’t let them get going in transition, and you just could kind of feel that. But I loved how hard our guys worked offensively, and of course I did defensively.”
Playing without Ben Vander Plas, who had started the previous 14 games but was lost for the season to a broken hand in practice this week, it took a resilient and balanced effort to oust Carolina. The Hoos got what they needed from multiple sources.
Offensively, Virginia shot 49.0% from the field and scored 1.193 points per possession. The Hoos found their groove in the second half in particular when they shot 58.3% overall (14-24), 50.0% from 3-point range (2-4), and 72.2% from the free throw line (13-18) to build a double-digit lead before holding off one last North Carolina rally. UVA had 11 assists and just 6 turnovers.
The usual suspects carried the load. Kihei Clark tallied 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal, while Isaac McKneely chipped in 6 points on a pair of 3-pointers. Clark made both free throws in a 1-and-1 situation and a 57-55 lead with 1:59 to go and then added two more in the final minute. The Hoos, however, got really big nights from another trio.
Jayden Gardner had 17 points on 5-11 shooting overall and 7-8 shooting at the line. That included 3-4 free throws with a little more than a minute to go and UVA leading by just 4 points when he stepped to the line. UVA made 9 of 10 free throws in the final 2 minutes overall. Armaan Franklin, who was snubbed from any All-ACC recognition earlier in the week despite being the Hoos’ leading scorer in the regular season, added 14 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 blocked shot. He did most of his damage on drives, which included a tough shot off the glass with 2:46 remaining that came right after the Tar Heels cut the lead to a single possession (55-52) for the first time since the first five minutes of the half.
Asked about a little more juice for playing against UNC as a native of the state, Gardner said it was a special time for him.
“It’s always just when you’re playing North Carolina because you know this is the hoops state,” said Gardner, who is from Wake Forest, North Carolina. “It’s special to be playing this time of year in Greensboro for the first time for me. Growing up, they rolled the TVs out in middle school and high school and it’s ACC country, so it’s just a special time, and I’m happy I could be part of it.”
Reece Beekman joined that duo in double figures with a stat line among the best in ACC Tournament play in this century. He posted 15 points, 5 assists, 5 steals, and 3 rebounds in the win. He also logged 0 turnovers for the third time in the last four games.
Beekman really asserted himself near the midway point of the first half. The Cavaliers trailed 9-5 with only two made shots in the first 9 minutes when Beekman quickly ignited his team. He made two free throws after a drive at 10:25 and then added three layups, twice off steals, in less than three minutes. He also dished out 3 assists during this flurry with a 3-pointer for McKneely, a jumper for Gardner, and a dunk for Francisco Caffaro rapidly adding 7 points to the scoreboard. Finally, Beekman hit a 3-pointer late in the shot clock with 4:24 to go in the half. All of that action turned the 9-5 deficit into a a 23-15 lead for Virginia over the course of six minutes.
“Just playing through the system,” Beekman said on ESPN after the game. “We took our time and slowed everything down this week and just played our game. I feel like everybody did their part tonight and we got a great win.”
With the offense generating production from varying sources, the UVA defense took care of the rest.
The Hoos held the Tar Heels to just 35.8% shooting overall (19-53) and 29.6% shooting from 3-point range (8-27). UNC managed 0.952 points per possession with only 20 points in the paint. Carolina made just 8 of 17 layup attempts as UVA challenged moves at the rim with a re-emerging Kadin Shedrick leading the way with 5 blocked shots (he also had 4 points on a pair of dunks). The Cavaliers had 8 blocks and 8 steals as a team.
RJ Davis ended up as the only North Carolina player to consistently make shots. He finished with 24 points on 8-14 shooting, which included making 4 of 8 triples. Otherwise, the rest of the UNC lineup managed just 11-39 shooting (28.2%). Caleb Love had 11 points and 6 assists, but it came from 3-15 shooting. Leaky Black added 8 points with a pair of 3’s in the first half accounting for most of that as he hit 2 of 7 shots. Pete Nance had 7 points on 2-7 shooting as well after going for 22 points on 7-10 shooting in the last meeting with UVA. Armando Bacot finished with just 4 points in 21 minutes after trying to play through an ankle injury from Wednesday night’s game against Boston College.
“I thought a couple times they hurt us when they got across the top on a ball screen, but Reece did a terrific job on [Love] and then Kihei did,” Bennett said. “But our defense is predicated, of course, on individual talent, Kadin’s ability to block, Jayden’s ability to move with his quick feet and Reece and Kihei and the other guys, but it’s really a helping-each-other defense, and when you know you’ve got guys in the gap, guys helping on screens, connected covering for each other, I think that really helps, and of course all you can do is make them earn. RJ got going a little bit, but we just made him earn most of the night and just took the challenge.”
