Virginia, according to head coach Tony Bennett, needed to “take off the tuxedos” in the second half, and after dressing down, the ‘Hoos erased an 11-point halftime deficit to beat Michigan, 70-68, in Crisler Center Tuesday night.
Virginia jumped out to a 9-2 lead to begin the game, but Michigan closed out the first half outscoring UVA 43-25 to take the 11-point lead at intermission.
No other way to say it: the Wolverines simply took it to Virginia for the first 20 minutes.
Hunter Dickinson, the go-to-guy in the middle for UM, set the tone with some early bully ball, while Jett Howard poured in threes to highlight play for Michigan in the first half.
A late bucket by Kobe Bufkin to end the first half raised the roof in Crisler Arena and sent the host into the locker room with the score 45-34 at the end of the first half.
Fortunately for Virginia, another half was left to play.
The Cavaliers wasted no time in wasting the Wolverines out of the break, making six of their first seven shots to trim the lead to two. Virginia, according to Bennett, was playing with a bit too much finesse in the first half.
“We just needed to get back to our style, take off the tuxedos,” said Bennett.
And in the second half that’s exactly what Virginia did. They got much better looks at the rim, shot 51 percent from the floor, and converted survived some crucial free-throw misses in the game’s waning moments to pick up the win in UVA’s last game ever in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
The star of the game for Virginia was team trainer Ethan Saliba, who patched up Kadin Shedrick’s bloody nose and taped up Reece Beekman’s ankle in NASCAR pit-crew time.
On the floor, Virginia got double-digit scoring from five players, paced by Beekman with 18 (7-of-10 from the field). The Cavaliers survived a subpar game from Arman Franklin, who had just two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the floor.
Tied at 65 with less than two minutes to go, Dickinson converted 1-of-2 from the foul line, putting Michigan ahead 66-65. After a UVA miss, Dickinson, a Virginian native, missed a lefty hook shot from point-blank range. After grabbing the rebound, Virginia’s Jaden Gardner buried a jumper to put UVA up 67-66 with 39 seconds remaining.
Despite having timeouts left, Michigan coach Juwan Howard elected to let his team play on, and the Wolverines turned the ball over when Beekman picked off a pass and was intentionally fouled on his breakaway to the basket. Beekman split the free throws, and with 14 seconds left Clark was fouled, and he calmly knocked down both shots, making it a four-point lead for UVA at 70-66.
Michigan quickly advanced the ball down the floor, and Dickinson made a layup, making it 70-68 with six seconds left. Franklin received the inbounds pass, was quickly fouled with 5.7 seconds to play.
Franklin missed both shots, giving UM one last gasp.
Howard got the final shot, but lost control of the ball as he went up as time expired. The Michigan bench and Crisler Center crowd begged for a foul, but none was called, as No. 3 UVA moved to 6-0 on the season.
Game tidbits
Gardner’s 12 points was his 106th double-digit scoring effort in his career.
For the first time since 2018 Virginia has opened the season scoring 70 or more points in its first six games.
After going 7-of-13 on three-pointers in the first half, Michigan finished 8-of-19 from behind the line, making its final three with 18:40 to play in the second half.
Payback time ahead for UVA
Virginia’s next three opponents – Florida State, James Madison, and Houston – all defeated the Cavaliers last season.
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