After a poor showing last Saturday in South Bend, Virginia returned to winning ways in front of a home crowd at the John Paul Jones Arena on Wednesday. With a 77-53 victory over the Louisville Cardinals, the Cavaliers improved to 11-3 on the season and 2-1 in ACC play.
UVA seems to be a completely different team when playing at home versus on the road. This win moves the Hoos to 9-0 at home on the season with some solid wins over teams like Texas A&M, Syracuse, and now Louisville. In those three wins, Virginia was able to hold its opponents to an average of 54.0 points. The team has an obvious confidence when playing on its home court that seems to be lacking during away contests.
“It was a step in the right direction for sure,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “I thought we were more ready and obviously it helped being at home. The guys responded and got a good lift. … We went a little bigger at times to help on the glass and clog up the lane defensively, so that was good to see that lineup as well. But it was a step again in the right direction and we get to go and test it again here real soon.”
Louisville hopped out to a quick 5-2 lead after a Skyy Clark 3-pointer, and for a quick second, it felt like it would be another slow start for Virginia. That wasn’t the case as UVA was able to respond, moving ahead 7-5 and never losing the lead after that.
Early on, the offense was flowing entirely through Reece Beekman. He had the assist on an Andrew Rhode 3-pointer that tied it at 5-5 and the go-ahead bucket as well. The senior guard scored or assisted on 5 of the team’s first 6 made field goals. He finished with 11 points, 8 assists, and 3 steals.
With 8:00 left in the first half, Virginia led by a score of just 19-14. From there, the Cavaliers ended the half very strongly, though, scoring 18 points in the final 7:45. That created a 37-22 lead at the break.
After allowing a couple early buckets to Louisville, Virginia did a good job of hunkering down on defense and forcing tough shots from the Cardinals. That allowed the hosts to pull away late in the first half and led to the big winning margin. Louisville shot just 2-13 from behind the arc in the first half and hit just 40.4% of its shots overall in the loss (19-47).
Ryan Dunn had a great game on the defensive end with 3 blocks, a steal, and 10 total rebounds to go with 15 points. After Isaac McKneely found himself with two early fouls, Taine Murray was forced to come off the bench and play a bigger role than normal. The guard from New Zealand played 18 minutes for Virginia and provided a big spark offensively, finishing with 12 points on 5-6 shooting. He was 2-3 from 3-point range.
“I was so happy for Taine,” said Bennett. “He just works and works and he gave us a good lift and played well. His physicality and toughness was good.”
In the second half, Louisville was able to find more success offensively. The Cardinals even went 7-10 from the charity stripe after shooting just 3 total free throws in the opening 20 minutes. Curtis Williams gave Louisville a big boost off the bench. After going 0-3 to start the game, Williams was 5-9 in the second half, including 4-7 from behind the arc. He had 14 points.
Despite Williams’ hot shooting, Virginia was able to maintain a comfortable lead throughout the second period. Free from foul trouble, McKneely really lit it up to help close out the game, shooting 5-7 in the second half and 3-5 from three. He finished with a game-high 18 points on 7-11 shooting. After a four-game stretch in single-digit scoring with just 3 3’s in those games combined, it was a much better performance for the sophomore.
Ball movement was a big reason for the Cavaliers’ offensive success. Virginia provided 20 assists on its 30 made field goals. Against Notre Dame, the Hoos had just 10 assists as a team. When discussing what allowed his team to establish rhythm on the offensive end, Coach Bennett provided some analysis.
“I thought we were not too slow, not too fast. Just played good basketball,” Bennett said. “We tried to space a little more and obviously when guys stick a few jumpers that helps. When you’re stone cold and can’t get a lot, that’s a challenge. … There was just a good mix, guys handled the ball and they had purpose and took what the defense gave us. Sometimes they switched against us, played a little zone, but I thought we did a decent job of recognizing and everybody contributed well.”
With Dante Harris sidelined due to injury, there have been concerns about whether this team has other ball handlers besides Beekman. Louisville put a lot of pressure on Beekman to start the second half, forcing Virginia to look elsewhere to facilitate the offense, but the Cavaliers didn’t let that slow them down. Whether it was Rohde, Murray, or McKneely, Virginia showed that it can run the offense through other players. McKneely and Murray in particular did a great job of creating their own shots in the second half.
While he did not have a great day offensively, shooting just 2-8 from the field and 1-5 from behind the arc, Jake Grove’s work on the glass should not go unnoticed. The transfer from Oklahoma pulled down 9 rebounds, including 3 on the offensive end. His hustle and grit will ensure he is a pivotal player on this squad for the remainder of ACC play.
Overall, the Cavaliers had a solid shooting night. As a team, Virginia shot 30-58 (51.7%) from the field, 10-26 (38.5%) from 3-point range, and 7-10 (70%) from the free throw line. To go along with the 20 assists, Tony Bennett’s squad had just 3 turnovers, a huge improvement from the 11 against Notre Dame.
Virginia will go back on the road this Saturday for a tough ACC matchup against an NC State team that is 7-0 at home. Given the road games at Memphis and Notre Dame caused problems, the Hoos will try to put together a better performance this time around.
“I think the inexperience really shows the two times we’ve been on the road or two and a half if you call the Wisconsin game a half road game,” said Bennett. “There’s a consistency, a continuity for guys that have played a lot. Their game doesn’t vary whether they’re playing in a neutral site, at home, or on the road. I mean the competition can go up and down, but the game is there and I hope this was a step in trying to play the right way. We play so many Saturday games away from this place and usually get some lively crowds and you just gotta be steady. That kind of gets to our pillar of humility. Know who you are, and then fight like crazy to establish it and hold onto it through the ups and downs of a game, especially road games.”
