Virginia (19-6, 10-4 ACC) look to get back on track with a game against a tough Wake Forest (16-8, 8-5 ACC) on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN2).
Wake dominated UVA in a 66-47 win in Winston-Salem last month.
AFP editor Chris Graham will lead our live coverage of the game from courtside, sorta, kinda.
Starting lineups: Nothing unusual
Andrew Rohde gets the start again at one of the off-guard spots. Jordan Minor starting at center. Going to need Minor to stay out of foul trouble.
Reece Beekman and Isaac McKneely are in the backcourt. Ryan Dunn is the four.
Early observations
Wake is running actions to get the ball to Efton Reid, who has six early points, two on a tough end-of-shot-clock short jumper over Minor, the other two buckets coming on the back end of screen-and-rolls.
Horseshit officiating gets Bennett’s game up
Damari Monsanto was holding Groves through a screen, and Groves, off balance because he was being held, turned the ball over.
No call.
Next trip down, Buchanan was called for an offensive foul on a screen to free up Groves for a three.
Tony Bennett let all three officials know how good of a job they’re doing today.
Tony used to get criticized by the fan base for not standing up enough for his guys.
That’s not been the case this season.
Another drought
Virginia has one bucket in the 9:39 stretch since the three that ended up being a two from McKneely at the 15:43 mark.
Fortunately, Wake has only outscored UVA 10-2 in the stretch.
It didn’t help that Beekman was on the bench with his first foul for 3:22 of the stretch. That’s when things slowed down.
Tech on TB?
This in-over-its-head crew just teed up Tony?
That’s his second tech here at Virginia. The last one: 2010.
Halftime score: Wake 22, Virginia 21
A couple of takeaways:
- Virginia had 11 points on 5-of-5 shooting in the opening 4:17, then 10 points on 5-of-19 shooting in the final 15:43. The offense: 1-of-6 from three (the one, from Rohde, came in the opening sequence), 2-of-4 at the rim, 7-of-14 on midrange jumpers. Actually a really good midrange percentage there.
- Wake’s offense: 2-of-10 from three, 4-of-10 at the rim, 3-of-9 in the midrange. Not bad defense there, actually.
- Nice first half from Dunn: six points on 3-of-4 shooting, three rebounds, three blocks, team-best +5 plus/minus.
- Weird stats for a team that is losing by a point at halftime.
Trending on AFP: Another Tony Bennett T
A story is trending on our website right now, about another Tony Bennett T – from a game on the 2022 European trip.
Here’s the link.
Tony stole 44 seconds there
Tony took Beekman out before the media timeout, hoping that the game would get to a break relatively quickly.
Fortunately for him, it did.
Update: Beekman is still going to be out. So …
Mark the score: it’s 33-32 UVA, 11:51 left.
It worked
Beekman just checked back in at the 9:22 mark, and Virginia had outscored Wake 6-2.
Then Beekman stole a pass and dunked the fast break, so Virginia is now up 41-34, Wake timeout, 9:12 left.
1-for-11, and a W
Virginia had numerous chances to ice the game at the line late, and couldn’t. One of goddamn 11 at the line, and Wake had a chance to tie or win in the final seconds.
Cam Hildreth missed a tough turnaround at the buzzer – great transition D there by McKneely.
Whew. Virginia holds on for the 49-47 win.
Recap to come, once my heart starts beating again.
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