Ishan Sharma hit both ends of a one-and-one with 31 seconds left to put Virginia up five, 50-45, extending a four-plus-minute ‘Hoos run to 12-0.
UVA coach Ron Sanchez used a timeout, I guess to set up his defense, though SMU coach Andy Enfield would use the TO to draw up the play of the night.
Yes, I know, SMU won this game after another Enfield timeout that preceded a three with less than a second left, but that one was a broken play.
The one that he had his kids run down 50-45 was what made the last-second three by Boopie Miller possible.
On the first three – SMU made three in the final 25 seconds – Miller took the inbounds pass in the backcourt, and got a screen from power forward Yohan Traore at the halfcourt stripe, forcing a switch that got him around UVA power forward Jacob Cofie.
Taine Murray, responsible for BJ Edwards, left his man to cut Miller off in the lane – looking back, up five, dude, let Miller get to the rim and take your chances, instead of leaving Edwards, a 37.1 percent shooter from three coming in, open in the corner.
Miller whipped a pass across the court to Edwards.
Release, rotation, splash, it was 50-48, and game on.
After another UVA timeout, Sharma was fouled, and made both ends of another one-and-one, and the lead was back to four, two possessions, 52-48, with 18 seconds left.
Enfield dialed up the same play that had led to the Edwards three, but Virginia defended it better this time, cutting off the pass to the corner.
Miller circled around a screen, got the pass, and drained a contested 23-foot three with nine seconds left to cut the deficit to one.
It’s still 52-51 Virginia here, nine seconds left.
Sanchez, to this point, had been subbing Sanchez and Murray for each other, offense for defense.
Murray, 9-of-11 at the line on the season coming in, was on the floor for defense ahead of the Miller make from three, instead of Sharma, 4-of-4 at the line on the night.
“The goal was to put our best defensive group on the floor, most experienced kind of defensive group that was playing,” said Sanchez, who was out of timeouts at this stage in the game. “Taine is definitely part of that group, combined with one of our better free throw shooting groups, and Taine is definitely a part of that. You know, Taine not making a free throw does not make him not be that. That’s who he is. And if the situation was presented in front of me again, I will do the same exact thing, no question.”
Murray got the inbounds pass and was fouled with 7.3 seconds to go.
The first free throw, the front end of a two-shot foul, barely nicked the front of the rim.
The second was strong, and SMU got the rebound, and Enfield got a timeout with 4.1 seconds on the clock, down one.
We know now that Miller made a game-winning three with four-tenths of a second left.
What you’ll love to learn here is that Miller was not the first option on the play that Enfield drew up.
He wasn’t even the second option.
“It was supposed to go to Chuck (Harris). We was hitting him on a flare,” Miller told reporters after the game. “And then if we didn’t have that, we’re supposed to hit Yohan, our big, and then, I knew, when we didn’t see anybody, I knew it was going to be my time.”
“We contested it,” Sanchez said. “I think Blake (Buchanan) maybe tripped a little. Watch it. That’s kind of what I saw. But from an effort standpoint, I think we were there, and it wasn’t a wide open look.”
After an official review, it was determined that there were still four-tenths of a second left on the clock, but Virginia had to inbound from the backcourt.
Jacob Cofie actually got a decent look from halfcourt – his shot grazed the net on the way down.
The 54-52 loss is the fourth in a row for Virginia (8-9, 1-5 ACC).
This is the first time a UVA Basketball team has been under .500 this late in a season since the first season of the Tony Bennett era, back in 2010.
“I’m hurting for the guys, I am, because I think that they deserved this one, you know, especially after coming off the road, you know, on a tough, tough road trip and being able to muster the energy,” Sanchez said.
“I think the scout was right on point. We defended their actions. This is one of the leading, you know, offensive teams in the country, if you just look at their numbers, and for us to hold them down to 54 points, you know, hitting that last three, to me, that’s, that’s the Virginia way. You know, if we can continue to get these guys to buy into that, you know, I’ll be unbelievably pleased, regardless of what the result is.”
It won’t be enough to get Sanchez the job full-time in two months, but after the two eggs that Virginia laid last week on the trip to the West Coast, what we saw tonight did represent improvement.