Virginia coach Ryan Odom had one or the other of his seven-footers on the floor for all but one minute of his first seven ACC games, and that was the garbage-time minute at the end of the 84-60 win over Cal on Jan. 7.
Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry game-planned around taking advantage of UVA’s size, using his bigs to bring the ball up the court, to negate Odom’s full-court man press, and using a five-out offense to draw the seven-footers away from the basket, forcing the Virginia D into scramble situations that led to open threes.
Odom eventually figured it out, but it necessitated benching both Johann Grunloh and Ugonna Onyenso down the stretch, and through the bulk of the two OT periods needed to close out the 100-97 win in South Bend on Tuesday.
Lesson learned
This is a good win for Virginia (17-3, 6-2 ACC), if only because, you’re going to play a team that goes four-guard around a big and uses five-out sets to create mismatches on the perimeter, and now you’ll know what you need to do.
At least the lesson was learned in a W; it looked for a while like the ops staff was going to have to signal the bus driver to get the vehicle warmed up before this one went to the halftime break.
Notre Dame (11-10, 2-6 ACC) hit eight of its first 11 shots from three, the final of that flurry coming from Cole Certa, who finished with 34 points on the night, to lead 39-20 at the six-minute mark of the first half.
Virginia was able to close out the first 20 minutes on a 15-5 run to go into the break down just nine, at 44-35.
I was writing on my Live Coverage blog at this point about the issue with the bigs getting exploited, and forecast that Odom would probably start the second half with his regular lineup, with Grunloh starting at the five, but if it didn’t work, I expected Devin Tillis to get minutes at the four, and Thijs de Ridder to slide over to the five spot.
ICYMI
That … eventually happened, though actually, Grunloh started, subbed out at the 16:41 mark, replaced by Onyenso, the two switching at the 10:44 mark, with Tillis finally getting minutes at the four at 9:05.
The bigs, to their credit, did a much better job in coverages over that lengthy stretch – the adjustment from Odom appeared to be, having them more in drop coverage, to play almost like a free safety in football, to be in the lane to protect the rim and stave off the dribble-drives that had been so bothersome in the first half.
Those adjustments worked; in that 10:55 stretch, Notre Dame, which shot 57.7 percent in the first half, was just 3-of-15 from the floor, and Virginia was able to fight back to even, at 54-54, when Tillis subbed in at the 9:05 mark.
Play by play
The Cavaliers would lead by as many as four, but a 2:50 scoring drought allowed Notre Dame to rebuild a six-point lead heading into the final two minutes of regulation.
A wild finish had Virginia taking the lead on a steal of an inbounds pass and driving layup from de Ridder, Notre Dame going back on top with a long three from Certa, and Tillis calmly hitting two free throws with 18 seconds left – then Virginia getting a pair of stops in the final seconds.
Onyenso was the lone seven-footer in the game for Virginia in the first OT, for all of 17 seconds.
Virginia trailed for all but 22 seconds of the OT period, but got the game back to square on a leaner three from Sam Lewis with three seconds left.
In the second OT, Grunloh was on the floor from the tip until the two-minute mark, subbing out for de Ridder, who was managing playing with four fouls.
Virginia trailed 91-89 with 2:00 to go after Jalen Haralson completed an old-fashioned three-point play.
Chance Mallory drilled a three at the 1:49 mark to put Virginia back on top; Certa made a tough runner in the lane with 1:29 on the clock to make it 93-92 Notre Dame.
Down the stretch, the difference was: defense.
After de Ridder converted two free throws to put Virginia back on top with 1:11 to go, Certa missed a contested three, Dallin Hall got the board, was fouled, and went 2-for-2 at the line.
Haralson made two free throws to get the score to 96-95 with 45 seconds left; Lewis, who had nine points in the two OTs, hit a stepback jumper from just outside the foul line to make it 98-95 UVA with 16 seconds left.
Shrewsberry called a timeout, and drew up a play to get Certa a look from three from the left wing.
He got a decent look, but the shot, with a good contest from Hall, was short, and Lewis rebounded, was fouled, hit two free throws with five ticks on the clock, and the game was sealed.
Adjustments
Grunloh (five points, two rebounds, 13 minutes, plus/minus: -4) and Onyenso (four points, three rebounds, two blocks, 17 minutes, plus-minus: -7) were out there, you can do the math, for 30 of the 50 minutes of game time.
Meaning: Odom went with Tillis at the four for extended minutes tonight.
With good results: Tillis had 12 points – on 3-of-9 shooting, 1-of-3 from three, 5-of-6 at the line – and five rebounds, and a plus/minus at +10.
Notre Dame, after scoring 44 points on 15-of-26 shooting, 8-of-13 from three, 1.517 points per possession in the first half, scored 53 points on 14-of-35 shooting, 3-of-14 from three, 1.104 points per possession the rest of the way.
That’s still a lot of points per possession.
But it was just enough D, with the offense plugging away – after scoring 35 points on 12-of-25 shooting, 3-of-12 from three, 1.167 points per possession, in the first half, Virginia scored 65 points on 19-of-30 shooting, 7-of-17 from three, 1.354 points per possession the rest of the way.
Player notes
- Three guys with big nights, starting with Thijs de Ridder: 32 points, 9-of-20 FG, 0-of-5 3FG, 14-of-15 FT, eight rebounds, 34 minutes. He had trouble on switches on the perimeter; the NBA guys are noting that kind of thing.
- Next, Sam Lewis: 21 points, 7-of-13 FG, 5-of-8 3FG, 2-of-2 FT, nine rebounds, six assists, 43 minutes.
- Chance Mallory: 17 points, 5-of-9 FG, 3-of-6 3FG, 4-of-8 FT, 37 minutes, team-best plus/minus of +11. He did miss the front ends of two one-and-ones in the second half that left four points off the scoreboard.
Team notes
Shooting
UVA: 31-of-65
ND: 29-of-61
Paint
UVA: 18-of-33
ND: 17-of-32
Midrange
UVA: 3-of-3
ND: 1-of-2
Three
UVA: 10-of-29
ND: 11-of-27
Free throws
UVA: 28-of-35
ND: 28-of-34
Odom Ball
Rebounding
Virginia: 35.0% offensive rebound rate
Virginia: 74.3% defensive rebound rate
Points in the paint: Virginia 36-32
Points off turnovers: Notre Dame 13-10
Second-chance points: Virginia 12-6
Points off made threes: Notre Dame 33-30
Video: UVA-Notre Dame highlights
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
