The scoreboard was deceptive. It looked like Virginia had held Georgia Tech to 28 points in the first half, but numbers can look the way you want them to look.
Twenty-eight ain’t a lot. But Georgia Tech shot 48 percent from the field in the first half, and the Yellow Jackets were particularly effective in the post, scoring 16 of their points in the paint.
Then came the adjustments, not so much strategic as metaphysical. Coach Tony Benett told reporters after the game that he stressed to his players that they needed to impose their will defensively.
Consider the will imposed.
Georgia Tech scored four points in the opening 5:49 of the second half as UVA built a double-digit lead, and it didn’t get much better from there.
Tech shot 33.3 percent in the second half (8-of-24) and committed seven turnovers, finishing with 14 for the game.
Other than Adam Smith going 3-of-5 from three-point range on an assortment of circus shots, Virginia dictated to Georgia Tech in the final 20 minutes.
The Jackets scored 24 in the second half. The difference between the 24 in the second half and the 28 in the first half was a lot more than the number four would seem to indicate.
Brogdon is on fire!
Remember the ‘90s video game NBA Jam? You’d have a guy hit two threes, and the announcer would say he was heating up, and when he made the third, he was on fire!
Malcolm Brogdon had an NBA Jam stretch late in the first half, scoring 10 straight, a three, a long two, another three, which led to a Georgia Tech timeout, then a driving layup that keyed on the Jackets being so concerned with what he was doing on the perimeter.
It wasn’t, as you might guess, that big a deal to Humble Moses.
“I think all threes of those buckets came off of a set. On that set, there are multiple options. They have to guard multiple things. They can’t key on one player. London hit me coming off the stagger and I got good screens,” Brogdon said.
But actually, he was on fire!
Nolte was … almost on fire
Virginia fans love Evan Nolte, and want to see him do well, because he’s sort of the UVA version of Big Shot Bob, the nickname given to NBA journeyman Robert Horry after he drained more than anybody’s share of clutch shots.
So when Nolte drained a three in the process of being fouled at a key juncture Thursday, pushing the UVA lead into double digits, the fans showed their love.
“Never saw a guy hit a three and have a whole crowd chant his name that quick. That was impressive,” Bennett joked afterward.
Nolte hit another jumper just inside the arc two minutes later and finished with six points in 14 minutes off the bench.
Managing minutes
Brogdon, shocker, played just 33 minutes, with London Perrantes getting 32. That’s relative mothballs for the dynamic duo.
No one else played more than 28.
Good for Friday night.
– Column by Chris Graham
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