Virginia had a 47-40 lead, had three shots to go up nine or 10. Wake Forest answered with a 13-0 run as the Cavaliers – stop me if you’ve heard this one before – went nearly seven minutes without a field goal.
The ‘Hoos would not get closer than four the rest of the way in a 63-55 defeat, the fourth home loss of the season for Virginia.
This is one that got away for UVA, which got great defense from Reece Beekman on Wake star Alondes Williams, who had come in averaging 20.7 points and five assists per game, had just two points in the first half, and finished with 14, on 5-of-12 shooting, with eight turnovers.
But Williams had 10 of his 14 points in the final 7:11, on 4-of-6 shooting (2-of-2 from the line).
He also assisted Isaiah Mucius on a three with 6:19 to go that put Wake up to stay.
Until the big Wake run, things had gone according to plan for the ‘Hoos. In addition to the effort from Beekman on Williams, Armaan Franklin had the big game Tony Bennett needed from him, scoring 18 on 7-of-11 shooting, 3-of-5 from three, in 35 minutes, but he was on the bench for a breather for the bulk of the game-turning run.
Kody Stattmann, then, had an unexpectedly solid game – tying his career high with 11 points, pressed into action because of odd foul trouble for Kihei Clark.
It was the first time Stattmann scored in double digits in more than two years – he had 11 in a loss at Boston College on Jan. 7, 2020.
The difference was in the paint. Virginia, as usual of late, attacked the paint and the rim, and got 26 shots at the rim.
Problem was, only made eight of them. Virginia was 8-of-26 (30.8 percent) at the rim. Coming in, the Cavaliers had been shooting 59.1 percent at the rim, averaging 10.9 makes on 18.5 attempts.
Wake, which made 11 of its 18 shots at the rim, and had a 32-22 advantage in points in the paint, also controlled the boards in the second half, outrebounding the ‘Hoos 18-11, with eight offensive rebounds, leading to eight second-chance points, all coming during the second-half rally.
Jayden Gardner had his second subpar game of the week – nine points on 3-of-14 shooting in 27 minutes.
Gardner had four points on 2-of-10 shooting in the 54-52 win over Virginia Tech on Wednesday.
Beekman, in addition to his solid D, had six points and seven assists in 39 minutes.
Clark, beset by the foul trouble, finished with two points on 1-of-4 shooting in just 22 minutes, with five rebounds, four assists and two turnovers.
The bigs, Francisco Caffaro, in his first start of the season, and Kadin Shedrick, had so-so games – Caffaro had five points on 2-of-9 shooting and six rebounds in 24 minutes; Shedrick had four points on 1-of-3 shooting (2-of-2 at the line) and five rebounds in 19 minutes.
Virginia shot 36.2 percent (21-of-58) from the floor and was 5-of-13 (38.5 percent) from three.
Wake Forest shot 45.1 percent (23-of-51) from the field and 33.3 percent (6-of-18) from three.
Jake LaRavia led the Demon Deacons with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
Story by Chris Graham
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