Tony Bennett: #12 Virginia doesn’t win with KOs, but body blows

Forget the score for a second, just look at the efficiency stats. In the first half Wednesday night, Virginia scored 1.13 points per possession, right at its season average, and allowed Lehigh to score .875 points per possession, actually a little better than its season average.

Now look at the score. Virginia led 35-28, and it felt like the Cavs had underperformed.

“We’re not a knockout punch team. Our way has to be just continuing to have possessions, and it accumulates, and hopefully we can wear them down,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said after his ‘Hoos had won by what appeared to be a comfortable 80-54 margin.

The game was effectively in hand after an early 11-0 second-half run that pushed Virginia’s lead to 16, but this one was a bit of a test for UVA, and Bennett felt afterward that his team didn’t handle the first part of it all that well.

“We were a little shot and three-point happy early, and I think we didn’t move the ball side to side, and look inside to at least try and touch the paint,” Bennett said.

After starting 8-of-12 from the field, Virginia slogged through a lengthy 2-of-14 shooting stretch that allowed Lehigh to take a 24-23 lead inside of five minutes to go in the first half.

The Cavs closed the half on a 12-4 run to go into the break up seven, but Bennett indicated afterward that his team has a lot to learn from how the first half almost got away.

“We weren’t wearing them down too much offensively, so I think that let them in. It’s just kind of a battle and eventually we’re going to hopefully wear them down, and I thought that happened, but it doesn’t happen right away. We’re a possession team more than most, and I talked about how this is a game of cementing some habits,” Bennett said.

The work to do between now and a stern road test coming up on Dec. 1 at Ohio State is getting out of some bad habits.

“If our guys get into that notion, We’ve got to do it right away, Boy, I wish we were up at the media timeout, This team hasn’t won a game, We should be up by ten by now, that’s really wrong thinking that I think will put yourself in a hole. It’s on us doing what we have to do well over time,” Bennett said.

– Story by Chris Graham