The Virginia basketball team generally has feasted on Thanksgiving tournaments in the Tony Bennett era. On Monday, however, the Hoos starved on offense and got stuffed on defense as Wisconsin pulled away to a dominant 65-41 win at the Fort Myers Tip-Off in Florida.
The final score accurately captures what was a rough outing for the Wahoos. They never led and forced only one tie at 2-2 in the first minute. They fell behind by 10 points at halftime and after a brief push in the second half, trailed by double digits for the final 11 minutes of the game.
Virginia had won nine November tournament titles in the last 10 years entering this season, but hopes of another came to a screeching halt against the Badgers.
“They played really well and they imposed their will. We fought to get it back, but in every way they stretched it out,” Cavalier coach Tony Bennett said. “That’s a bad feeling as a coach. I think our inexperience certainly showed, but you’ve still gotta be a little sounder and tied a little tighter than that.”
Neither side of the court gave UVA much chance to win in this one. Offensively, the Hoos made just 32.6% of their shots overall (15-46) and 28.6% from 3-point range (4-14). That led to the lowest scoring output in six years, dating back to the 39-point exit against Florida in the 2017 NCAA Tournament. The first half was particularly poor as the team managed just 18 points on 23.8% shooting (5-21). That was the lowest first half score for Virginia since the 2022 NIT third round game against St. Bonaventure.
Those numbers reflect what was a fairly sluggish performance. Outside of Reece Beekman, no one even created that many good opportunities really. Whether it was attacking off the dribble or catching after screening action, the Cavaliers couldn’t find a jolt anywhere else.
Beekman led the way with 17 points on 6-12 shooting, including a 2-3 night from 3-point range. He also dished out 7 assists with just 2 turnovers, meaning he accounted for 13 of the team’s 15 total buckets and that he assisted on 7 of 9 baskets made by his teammates. He added 4 rebounds and 2 steals as well.
Isaac McKneely, who missed the last game with an ankle injury, returned to the lineup and scored 9 points on 3-7 shooting. He had a hard time getting much space throughout. Ryan Dunn chipped in 6 points (3-6 shooting), 6 rebounds, 5 blocked shots, and 2 steals but he did not provide much of a threat outside of shots near the rim. Andrew Rohde had 5 points on 2-6 shooting with 3 assists, while Jake Groves went 1-7 shooting for 4 points.
No one else cracked the scoring column as Dante Harris went 0-3 with 0 assists in 17 minutes and Leon Bond III missed his only shot attempt in 13 minutes. Taine Murray went 0-2 in a late-game stretch of 5 minutes.
“They were going under a lot of our screens, sitting in the lane waiting – it was hard to get spacing,” “We couldn’t get Jake going, they were on his shot, Groves, a little bit. The lane was pretty packed so they did a good job. I thought Reece made some nice plays, attacked, and did some things and we needed that. We’ve got to keep taking a look at stuff, how we can adjust things … but Reece, he’s got the most experience, and I thought he showed in stretches some of the talent that he has and different things he can do.”
On the defensive end, things weren’t much better. While Wisconsin struggled a little bit in the first half too with 28 points on 30.3% shooting, the quality of looks it produced were better and more consistent than the Hoos. Dunn erased some of that with 4 of his 5 blocked shots before halftime, which was part of 7 blocked shots in the first half (out of 8 for the game).
The types of looks the Badgers were generating paid better dividends after intermission. They made 51.7% of their shots (15 of 29) in the second half, including 5 of 10 3-pointers. Even when they missed some shots, they hammered the offensive glass with 20 O-Boards leading to 12 second chance points in the game. That led to a 48-21 rebounding advantage in the stats.
Steven Crowl caused a lot of the problems for the Virginia defense. He made 7 of 10 shots for 15 points, but also grabbed 10 rebounds (4 offensive) and dished out 2 assists. John Blackwell scored 10 points for the Badgers, while Tyler Wahl and Max Klesmit added 9 each. Wahl grabbed 10 rebounds with 7 on the offensive end. Chucky Hepburn had only 3 points, but he dished out 6 assists. AJ Storr tallied 7 points as well.
The balanced attack came from different concepts that had the Hoos a step behind for most of the game. Crowl, for example, had several hockey assists over the post trap where his diagonal pass led to the pass that fed a 3-point shooter. Wisconsin had at least 4 made 3’s in that scenario. There were also some handoffs and dribble drives that caused rotation problems of the Pack-Line defense.
“You always have that feeling, we’re first or we’re there or we’re anticipating – we were late and behind and second,” Bennett said. “Whether it was the post trap, whether it was a lead screen DHO and just being there. I felt like they got us behind and we were a little lackadaisical or just behind the play and that hurt a lot. Then of course their offensive rebounding was significant. Whenever they missed a shot or you had a good stand, to give up that many offensive rebounds was very challenging too.”
Virginia has one day to try to figure out some solutions before a matchup with West Virginia in Fort Myers on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
