The struggles away from home continued for the Virginia basketball team as it lost to NC State on Saturday, 76-60. Following the opening 10 minutes, the Wolfpack were able to break down UVA’s defense and create a lot of open looks. On the other end of the floor, the Hoos could rarely beat one-on-one matchups.
NCSU has won 4 of 6 games in the series. This was the largest against the Hoos since a 19-point win in the 2013 ACC Tournament.
“We talked about after the game, when you’re playing well it’s easy and your highs can be as high as you want,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “But a step for us as a team and everything is when you’re struggling a little bit, you can’t let your lows just be so low. You gotta figure out ways to stop the bleeding. … Our inexperience certainly does show, and this is not a year in this league to be inexperienced. I think there’s good veteran teams and you gotta be ready, but we’ll keep working at it.”
In the early minutes, it seemed like the Pack Line defense was successful as Virginia allowed just 4 points in the opening 7 minutes. NC State tried to get to the rim with the dribble drive, but proved unable to create many scoring opportunities and made just 2 of its first 9 shots.
This continued for more than 10 minutes until a DJ Parker Jr. 3-pointer went in as the shot clock expired with 7:17 left in the first half. It became an obvious momentum changer, as the Wolfpack finished the half on a 20-9 run to take a 35-28 lead at the break.
Prior to Parker’s make, the Wolfpack were just 1-6 from 3-point range. NC State ultimately finished 10-28 (35.7%) from beyond the arc, though, meaning the hosts hit 9 of 22 to close the game (40.9%). Its ability to shoot the long ball was an obvious difference maker in the game as UVA made only 5 3’s of its own.
One reason the Wolfpack created so many open looks was Virginia’s struggles on post defense. Initially, the game plan defensively for the Cavaliers was to double DJ Burns Jr., NC State’s starting center, as soon as he got the ball. This seemed like an obvious choice. Nobody on the Virginia squad would be able to guard him one-on-one, as he is 6’9″ and 275 pounds.
The Wolfpack countered with post-up locations farther from the basket and the big man made the Hoos pay as he was able to quickly recognize the double team, and would fire a skip pass through or over the Virginia defense to an open teammate. Burns finished with 6 points and 4 assists.
Even when Burns went out, backup center Ben Middlebrooks found success on the offensive end. Virginia did not double Middlebrooks and he simply won his matchup at times. He finished with 8 points off the bench, shooting a perfect 4-4 from the field. The offensive success of these two players ultimately broke down the Virginia defense, leading to open jumpers for the rest of the Wolfpack squad. NC State guards Parker and Jayden Taylor each had 15 points, while DJ Horne added another 14. These three players shot a combined 7-17 from 3 (41.2%).
“Their ones, twos, and threes defensively really get after you and make it hard,” said Bennett. “Dangerous team for sure with the inside-outside attack and then their defensive tenacity. That’s why I liked the way we took care of the ball early and then I think they wore us down a little bit.”
Offensively, despite a few instances of strong play from Reece Beekman and Isaac McKneely, Virginia could not consistently win its one-on-one matchups. The NC State on-ball pressure suffocated the Hoos. This tough Wolfpack defense created 8 turnovers, leading to 9 points. The Cavaliers had just 3 turnovers on Wednesday night in the win against Louisville.
For the majority of the game, this meant Virginia relied too much on Beekman to create opportunities for everyone around him. He had a solid game offensively, finishing with 12 points on 4-7 (57.1%) shooting (4-4 from the line) and 10 assists, but this overreliance on Beekman makes it tough for the offense to get going when teams make a possession difficult for him. When the offense was forced to go through other players, there were a number of times either McKneely or Andrew Rohde hopelessly lofted the ball into the paint, just for a Wolfpack defender to be waiting for it.
Ryan Dunn had a good game on the offensive end. He totaled a career-high 16 points, shooting 7-9 (77.8%) from the field, 1-2 (50.0%) from 3-point range, and was 1-3 (33.3%) from the line. The knock on him is that he still isn’t creating his own shot, relying on Beekman or others to get him good looks.
One bright side for Virginia offensively was McKneely looked a lot more confident than he had been in previous road games. He did not seem afraid to take some contested shots and even created his own look at times, but much of this came in the second half when NC State already had a sizable lead. The sophomore guard had 18 points for the second straight game, shooting 6-13 (46.2%) from the field, 4-7 (57.1%) from long range, and 2-2 from the charity stripe.
Overall, Virginia shot 23-53 (43.4%) from the field, 5-15 (33.3%) from behind the arc, and 9-13 (69.2%) from the free throw line. The Cavaliers did post 14 assists, but as mentioned earlier, 10 of those were from the hands of Beekman as he logged his fifth career game with at least 10 helpers. Finally, Virginia had just 8 points off the bench, a trivial number compared to NC State’s 21. Jordan Minor scored 6 of those 8 points late with the outcome well decided.
This loss moves Virginia to 11-4 overall and 2-2 in ACC play. The Cavaliers own a disappointing 0-3 mark on the road with all losses coming by more than 15 points. Coach Bennett has discussed how his past teams have been able to have success on the road due to consistency in play. That is obviously missing from this team.
Virginia’s defense and long-range shooting especially have struggled when playing away from home. In three road games, the Cavaliers have lost by an average of 20.3 points with opponents going a combined 30-74 (40.5%) from 3-point range while the Wahoos have gone just 11-45 (20.4%). This discrepancy in 3-point shooting points to an obvious reason for the road struggles, and needs to be fixed if the Cavaliers want to find more success in the ACC.
The next opportunity comes at Wake Forest on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.
This team and coaching staff are really struggling this year. They have zero answers and their adjustments aren’t working.
Obviously Tony made an error by not recruiting a big center such as Salt or Toby.