UVA Basketball: Wonder why we never played during Finals before?

There’s a reason UVA Basketball hadn’t played a game during Finals in forever.

“I think some of them were still studying when they were sitting on the bench today, at least they looked that way,” Virginia coach Ron Sanchez told reporters after his team’s 59-41 win over Bethune-Cookman on Thursday night at a less-than-half-full JPJ.

The final score didn’t reflect how this one played out.

The Cavaliers missed 14 of their first 15 shots, had three points in the first 12 minutes, and trailed for the first 25 minutes before finally shaking off the Finals rust.

“Last night, I had a lot of homework, so I was kind of up late doing work. I felt that this morning. It was definitely hard,” said freshman Jacob Cofie, who finished with 12 points, but put up a goose egg in six lackluster first-half minutes.

Credit to Bethune-Cookman (2-7) for taking advantage of the sluggishness on the part of the ACC team.

The Wildcats forced eight first-half UVA turnovers, turned them into nine points, and led 21-18 at the break, holding the ‘Hoos to 7-of-25 shooting, 3-of-15 from three.

Virginia hung around because of its work on the defensive end.

Bethune-Cookman shot 28.2 percent in the opening 20 minutes, and led by just three at the break.

“That was the message at halftime, just keep guarding,” Sanchez said. “We’re going to find ways to score. We’re going to find a rhythm. And I think they did a really good job of handling the adversity that they faced in the first half, because they could have, you know, kind of faltered there for a minute.”

There was a clear emphasis in the halftime chalk talk on getting the ball into the paint.

The Cavaliers were 8-of-10 on shots at the rim in the second half, and the rim runs opened up cleaner looks on the perimeter, with the shooters going 4-of-8 from three in the final 20 minutes.

It was still a tight game relatively late. A pair of driving layups by Brayon Freeman cut the UVA lead to 46-41 with 5:49 left.

An Elijah Saunders post-up on Virginia’s next possession got the lead back up to seven, and ignited a game-closing 13-0 ‘Hoos run.

Game Notes

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Bethune-Cookman missed its final eight shots from the floor in the final 5:49.

Saunders finished with 15 points and eight rebounds in 36 minutes, with a team-best plus/minus of +24.

Cofie had 12 points, all in the second half, and 10 rebounds, and freshman Ishan Sharma had 12 points, on 4-of-7 shooting from three, in 26 minutes, with a +20 plus/minus.

Sophomore point guard Dai Dai Ames did not play. Ames, who is averaging 8.1 points per game this season, only played seven minutes in the 63-51 loss at SMU last week, being forced out of that game with a sprained ankle.

“I don’t think it’s long term,” Sanchez said. “I just felt that he was still a little sore, and today might have set him back further. So, we wanted to be really smart with his recovery.”

The backup point guard, redshirt freshman Christian Bliss, whose status is said to be day-to-day, was on the bench in sweats alongside Ames.