Tony Bennett had to ride out a three-minute stretch with Reece Beekman and Kihei Clark on the bench with four fouls as Wake Forest cut what had been at one point a 19-point down to one.
You assumed he would go with one or the other at the next timeout, but he sent both back on the floor at the under-eight media break.
The thinking behind that: “Well, they both can’t get a foul at the same time,” Bennett said.
One of his assistants raised the idea of sending both back into the game with Virginia clinging to a 57-56 lead, and the Lawrence Joel Coliseum rocking in anticipation.
It was the loudest game in the Joel that Bennett remembers in his 14 years at Virginia.
Wake, which had won its past 15 games in Winston-Salem, actually had three chances to take the lead, the best on a live-ball turnover, a bad pass by Jayden Gardner, that gave Tyree Appleby a run-out and a chance to attack the paint.
Appleby, instead, decided to take a stepback three, which missed, and then ahead of the media timeout, he took Ryan Dunn to the rim, but Dunn recovered to block the shot.
Virginia was, at this stage, barely hanging on at the defensive end, not getting good looks with no point guard in the game on the offensive end.
Bennett needed at least one of his guys back in.
Going with both was an interesting idea.
“That went through my mind because one of the, I wish I could, it was the whole staff, but one staff said, let’s go with them both. And I was like, and I thought, well, if one picks up a foul, they both can’t, you know what I mean?” Bennett said.
“It was kind of time, let’s just, let’s go,” Bennett said. “Some guys were tired, get a different mix, try to spread out and guard. I think they had were frustrated that they couldn’t quite, you know, they’re getting some fouls, couldn’t keep them in front.”
The issue with the fouls was the result of the smart game plan from Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes, who spread the floor to give Appleby and sophomore guard Cameron Hildreth room to operate.
Hildreth had a nice statline: 16 points, 3-of-7 shooting from the field, and 9-of-10 at the free-throw line.
His game is more bully ball – getting the ball on the wing in a clear-out, and backing his man down into the post to create a shot or force a foul.
Appleby, the ACC’s second-leading scorer (18.1 points per game) and leading assist man (6.1 assists per game) coming in, is the straight-line dribble-drive guy.
“They were spreading us out, we thought maybe a screen was coming in, and just he’s so quick as and you know, Hildreth is so aggressive with his drives that if they turn your hips a little bit, and then they’ve got shooters, and they attack, and then they’ll jump stop and really work you deep into the paint. That’s, it’s well-done, it’s well-schooled,” Bennett said.
Appleby had an off-day, scoring 13 points on 4-of-16 shooting and dishing out five assists, with three turnovers, but he was still able to draw fouls, and the fouls added up for Beekman and Clark, putting Bennett in a tough situation.
The move to put both back into the game righted the ship. The defense got stops – Wake made only three of its last 13 shots in the final 7:36 – and the offense was able to get back on track.
Forbes: Hard to play from behind against an elite basketball team
Forbes credited his team for being able to fight back from the big early deficit, but you could tell he felt afterward that the big early deficit was what did his team in.
“Everybody talks about their defense, but they’re really good on offense. I guess they showed it today. They had 15 threes on us,” Forbes said.
Virginia missed its first eight shots, but even then, Forbes felt that it wasn’t good defense from his guys.
“We weren’t guarding them very well at the beginning of the game. We got off to a pretty good start, but they were just missing,” Forbes said. “Then, when you see that ball cling, now they start to go in. I think they scored on eight straight possessions in the first half, a 22-point run there.
“We were playing from behind the rest of the game. It’s hard to do that against an elite basketball team. That just made it really hard for us,” Forbes said.
Forbes gave big props to the Virginia side for being able to withstand the second-half Wake rally.
“You gotta give them credit. They came in here, and they took the hit, and then they won the game,” Forbes said. “They played really well. We did hold them scoreless in the second half, I think from about 9:16 to 6:26, which helped us get back in the game. It’s a tough game. We’d love to have won it, but we didn’t, and we gotta move on.”
Share
Chris Graham
