Virginia stifles #22 NC State, holding Pack to 33.3 percent shooting in 63-50 win

Virginia may have just played its best defensive game of the season, holding #22 NC State to 33.3 percent shooting in a 63-50 win on Tuesday in JPJ.

The Pack (19-6, 9-5 ACC) had won four straight and eight of nine coming in, but never could get anything going with any consistency, shooting 25.8 percent in the first half as UVA (18-4, 10-3 ACC) led 34-20 at the break.

The lead would get to as much as 20 early in the second half, but State got back to decent striking distance, getting as close as nine on two occasions, the second time on a three-pointer by UVA transfer Casey Morsell, that got the score to 55-46 with 3:46 to go.

Morsell, who had 18 points on the night, missed an open three with 2:52 to go that would have knocked the deficit down to seven.

A Reece Beekman layup made it 58-46 Virginia at the 2:24 mark, and then after a turnover by Wolfpack big man DJ Burns, a three by freshman Isaac McKneely with 1:47 to go pushed the UVA lead back to 15, icing the game.

Highlights

Box score

Inside the box score

Jayden Gardner had another big night for Virginia, putting up 18 points (on 6-of-12 shooting) and five rebounds.

Beekman had 15 points (on 6-of-11 shooting) and four assists.

The news of the night was the re-emergence of Kadin Shedrick, who had started 14 of Virginia’s first 15 games, then found himself glued to the bench of late, including getting a DNP in UVA’s 74-68 loss at Virginia Tech on Saturday.

Shedrick got 26 minutes off the bench, and put up 10 points and six rebounds, and had a team-best plus/minus of +16.

McKneely had eight points (on 3-of-7 shooting) in 28 minutes off the bench, and made maybe the defensive play of the night, blocking a Greg Gantt dunk attempt that would have cut the Virginia lead to seven with 3:07 to go.

Kihei Clark had six points and six assists.

Virginia shot 44.7 percent from the floor.

Odd stat: only eight three-point attempts.

The ‘Hoos, rewarded for attacking the lane, were 19-of-24 at the line.

For NC State, Terquavion Smith, the ACC’s leading scorer, had 19 points, but needed 20 shots (he was 7-of-20 from the floor) to get them.

Jarkel Joiner, who had averaged 16.2 points per game coming in, had five, on 2-of-14 shooting.