The Virginia basketball team returned from its exam break with plenty of rust, but enough resilience to overcome it Saturday night. The Hoos fell behind early, still trailed at halftime, and faced a double-digit deficit with 17 minutes to go but rallied for a 56-54 win against Northeastern at the John Paul Jones Arena.
UVA’s comeback effort pushed this season’s record to 9-1 and the overall non-conference record in home games to 97-10 in the Tony Bennett era. The Cavaliers have held seven opponents to 54 or fewer points this season and they won all seven games.
“Tougher defense, and Reece [Beekman] kind of decided to take over and made some plays, iMac [Isaac McKneely] banged a three, we just made some adjustments that I thought got us moving and a little more physical offensively and then we just tried to make it tough [defensively],” Bennett said of his team’s rally. “… I mean, they had that game, and we had it for a stretch. It was just kind of one of those ‘Smash Mouth’ games that you had last man standing and plays had to be made.”
When plays had to made Saturday, Beekman was indeed heavily involved. He poured in 21 points to set a new career high to go alongside 5 assists and 1 turnover. He ended up as the only Cavalier in double figures as he made 9 of 18 shots. Beekman added 6 rebounds and 2 steals too.
In the first half, Virginia fell behind 16-4 with a sluggish start and Beekman had both of the early buckets. A 14-1 run erased the deficit and the back half of that surge included a Beekman assist and the shot that briefly put UVA back in front. The Huskies retook the lead and grew it back to 13 points at 37-24 in the early part of the second half, but Beekman helped his team reel it back in again.
It started with a free throw and moments later he attacked off a screen for a two-handed dunk. After Leon Bond III followed with his own slam, Beekman scored two more times. That included a layup and a pullup jumper that carved the margin down to 40-35. The lead see-sawed later in the half, but UVA faced a 54-52 deficit with 52 seconds to go when Beekman drew a foul and tied it up with a pair of makes. UVA got a stop on defense that Beekman finished off with a defensive rebound.
That set the stage for one last big play from the senior guard. The Hoos sent Jake Groves up for a screen and Beekman found enough room for a drive in the final 10 seconds. He absorbed some contact and got a tough shot to fall off the glass for the game-winning bucket.
“Just having to make plays. I had to do that kind of throughout the whole game, but especially down the stretch,” Beekman said. “Being a point guard and leader, you’ve got to step up in those situations and the team counts on me in those situations so I just stepped up and made the plays we needed to win.”
Northeastern coach Bill Coen summed it up simply.
“First of all, he’s a terrific player – he’s a really hard kid to keep out of the lane,” Coen said. “He’s got tremendous quickness and explosiveness, ballhandling ability. He’s got the ability to make tough mid-range shots over length – he made a bunch of those today. … Reece is a tremendous player and I thought he pretty much willed them to victory. Guys were kind of a little bit in neutral and he just made things happen off the bounce with not only his ability to score but his ability to find his teammates.”
In addition to Beekman’s critical plays, McKneely and Groves scored 8 points each for Virginia. Both made shots during the second half rally as well. Both of McKneely’s 3-pointers in the game happening in the final 10 minutes. McKneely’s 3 with 7:01 to go gave UVA a 45-44 lead.
Bond and Elijah Gertrude came off the bench for 6 and 5 points respectively with both players providing a jolt of energy in each half. Ryan Dunn chipped in 5 points and 4 rebounds. He jammed home an alley-oop pass from Beekman in the second half that ignited the crowd. Andrew Rohde did not score, but had 6 assists with 0 turnovers. The hosts shot 41.5% overall (22-53) and 14.3% from 3-point range (2-14). They hit 55.6% of their free throws (10-18).
Northeastern countered with a balanced attack of its own. Chris Doherty led the way with 12 points and 5 assists as he created problems by dribbling into post-up opportunities. Joe Pridgen added 11 points, while Masai Troutman and Jared Turner had 9 each. Luka Sakota had 7. The Huskies shot 47.1% overall (24-51) with a strong first half of 48.2% (13-27). They made 26.1% of their 3’s (6-23).
After the visitors took that 37-24 lead early in the second half, however, Virginia slowed their success rate significantly. Northeastern made 8 of 21 shots down the stretch (38.1%) with 7 turnovers. That proved to be problematic throughout the contest. The Huskies finished with 17 turnovers. They had a turnover on a final inbounds play that sealed the victory for UVA as well.
The Hoos weren’t sure that the layoff for exams contributed to Saturday’s close call as much as Northeastern’s play did. Still, they shook off the challenges either way to get the win.
“I’d like to think no – we got after it pretty good,” Groves said when asked about rust during exams. “We obviously took some rest, some days where we could have guys recover that needed it but we got after it this week. I’d like to think no, but we also hadn’t played a game in 10 days so just glad to walk away with a win tonight.”
