Days after seeing an eight-game winning streak end with a tough night guarding the 3-point line, the Virginia men’s basketball team returned to the victory track Saturday. The Hoos got there thanks to a bounce-back effort defensively as they won a 49-47 grudge match against Wake Forest at the John Paul Jones Arena.
“We just tried to guard. It was a physical game. The refs allowed us to play,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “They drive hard, they’re physical. We tried to be. We just tried to be in position and work. You didn’t have a choice. … We’re not the biggest, strongest and we’re young, but you can’t measure heart and position and willingness and I thought we had that tonight in terms of our defense being set and ready.”
The Wahoos held Wake to 34.6% shooting overall (19-55) and a lot of the success came from defending the arc. So just how much did UVA turn it around with 3-point defense?
Pittsburgh made 14 3’s on 43.8% shooting in its 74-63 win Tuesday night. That’s a number similar to what the Demon Deacons accomplished in their 66-47 victory against the Cavaliers back on Jan. 13 when they hit 10 triples on 47.6% shooting. In the rematch this weekend, however, Virginia held Wake to only 5 3-pointers on 23.8% shooting. That’s a 20% gain from the effort against Pitt on Tuesday and approximately a 24% gain from the meeting in Winston-Salem.
Hunter Sallis led the Deacs with 12 points and he made 2 3-pointers as part of that line, but he also had only 4 total shots from downtown and just 1 assist. He completely altered the January game when he had 21 points courtesy of 5-8 shooting outside the line. Virginia wanted to make Sallis work harder to get production this time and sent reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year Reece Beekman his way to try to slow him down.
Efton Reid and Kevin Miller were the only other WF players to contribute bigger numbers. Reid had a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double but the combination of Jordan Minor and Blake Buchanan slowed him down after three baskets in the first three minutes of the game. Miller had 9 points with 2 assists and 4 turnovers, while Andrew Carr (1-7) and Cameron Hildreth (2-10) added only 4 points each. Hildreth’s attempt to tie the game missed the target in the final seconds.
UVA’s Andrew Rohde, Ryan Dunn, and Isaac McKneely handled large minutes with those assignments. Dunn, in particular, had a big defensive game with 7 blocked shots to set a new career high. He moved into ninth on the school’s single-season list with 62 blocks so far this season. McKneely and Buchanan both had 2 blocks too as the hosts piled up 13 for the game.
Virginia is now 115-2 in the Bennett era when holding an opponent to fewer than 50 points.
“I thought Reece had a heck of a game and we matched him up [on Sallis]. You had to have some good individual slides defensively today, but there also was team,” Bennett said. “I thought Ryan defensively was terrific with some of his blocked shots – he had 7, oh my gosh – blocking shots, grabbing some key rebounds for us. The other guys, I actually thought Andrew Rohde guarded well, and Blake gave us a big lift and Isaac. So it was there.”
“I just think overall our ball screen defense was much better today,” Beekman said. “I think since that game, that Wake game and a little bit after that, we took a big shift in our defense and ramped it up. I think since then we’ve continued to work on things. I know Pitt hit a lot of shots on us, but today we got back into our defensive mindset.”
The Hoos needed that defensive effort as they struggled to crack the 50-point barrier too. They shot just 40.7% overall (22-54) and 30.8% from 3-point range (4-13). They also misfired repeatedly at the free throw line where they knocked down 1-11 attempts. Only a McKneely freebie in the final minute prevented the bagel there.
While Beekman played a big role defensively with his work on Sallis, his performance on the offensive end proved critical as well. He scored 20 of the team’s 49 points on 9-16 shooting, which included 2-3 from 3-point range. Both of those distance calls came in the first 1:30 of the second half as he rattled off the team’s first 10 points after intermission. He tallied 6 rebounds and 4 assists too.
One of the most important Beekman assists came with 3:41 to go in the game on a designed look for McKneely in the corner. That 3-pointer made it a 46-42 UVA lead at the time and helped keep Wake Forest at bay. McKneely had 12 points.
Virginia picked up 6 points each from Dunn and Buchanan, the latter also getting 7 rebounds. Buchanan’s biggest bucket happened in the final minute as he grabbed an offensive rebound and dunked home 2 points with 38 seconds remaining for a 48-44 lead.
It all combined for just enough to prevail on what was the program’s alumni weekend. Trey Murphy III and Kihei Clark, who both played with Beekman, were among those in attendance.
“They came back. They built this program so just to come out and get the win to see that they left something good behind means a lot,” Beekman said. “Kihei’s been with us at practice. I love playing with him again, one of the quicker guys I’ve ever had to guard so it’s always a challenge with him. It’s been fun to see them.”
