The season started for Virginia with a whimper, literally – an eight-minute scoreless stretch down the stretch in the home-opener loss to Navy that would be a harbinger of things to come.
“We’ve got to become a little tougher physically and a little more gritty mentally to last longer in these games. That’s part of the growing process,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said after the 66-58 setback.
The Cavaliers would, eventually, develop the grit and toughness that Bennett was seeking back in November, but it would take a while.
On the eve of the 2022 ACC Tournament, Virginia finds itself in an unfamiliar place – on the outside looking in as far as the NCAA Tournament is concerned.
How did we get here?
Navy 66, Virginia 58
Virginia wasn’t able to live up to what Bennett expects from his teams defensively in the first half, a glimpse at another big challenge for this group this season.
Navy hit eight of its first 10 from three, shot 53.6 percent from the field overall, and had 42 points at the break.
Bennett and his staff plugged the holes, and the ‘Hoos climbed back into it, tying the game at 55 with 8:45 to go on a Kadin Shedrick layup.
The Middies, at this point, went zone, and UVA reacted as if they’d never seen a team dare try such a scheme.
The Cavaliers had four chances to take the lead, but came up empty each time, and Sean Yoder finally broke the tie with 5:20 to go with a driving layup.
You could say that ignited the 9-0 run that closed things out, but it was more a crawl than a run.
Virginia wouldn’t score again until a meaningless three from Indiana transfer Armaan Franklin, who had seven points on 2-of-11 shooting, with 14.7 seconds left.
Virginia 58, Providence 40
Providence shot 23.5 percent from the floor. Jayden Gardner had 21 points on nine shots and 13 rebounds. Virginia responded well after the Friars got within six in the second half.
The 58-40 win in the championship game of the Roman Legends Classic on Nov. 23 was classic Virginia basketball.
It was 30-15 UVA at the break, and 42-28 after a Gardner jumper with 12:56 to go. Providence went on an 8-0 run as the ‘Hoos went scoreless for the next four and a half minutes, struggling against a Syracuse-like defensive strategy – pressing in the backcourt, halfcourt traps in the frontcourt.
Defense, go figure, would win it down the stretch for Virginia. Providence only made one shot from the floor in the final 10:49, going 1-of-18 as the Cavaliers closed on a 16-4 run.
That was as nice a win as the Navy loss in the opener was a bad loss. Providence finished the regular season 24-4, won the Big East with a 14-3 conference record, and is a likely two seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Iowa 75, Virginia 74
Iowa survived an impressive Virginia comeback to win on a banked in shot off the glass with eight seconds remaining, 75-74, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 29.
Early on, it looked as though the Hawkeyes were going to send the John Paul Jones Arena fans home early and disappointed. Iowa built a 21-point advantage, 40-19, at the 3:39 mark of the first half.
The Cavaliers, paced by Gardner, who scored eight straight points on a layup and back-to-back threes in the second half, woke up the JPJ gathering, and a 9-0 UVA run that was sparked by a Shedrick jam pulled the Cavaliers to within 58-53 as the roof nearly lifted, the loudest the Arena has been since March 2020.
Slowly, Virginia continued to slice into the Iowa lead, until the 1:36 mark of the second half, when UVA took the lead at 71-70. It was the Cavaliers’ first lead in the contest since the game’s opening 90 seconds of play.
Freshman Taine Murray erupted the home fans by draining back-to-back three-pointers. Murray finished with a season-high 14 points.
UVA finished the game connecting on 30-of-57 from the field, by far their best performance of the season. Reece Beekman finished the game with 11 points on a 5-of-9 showing from the floor. Kihei Clark, performing double duty as usual, chipped in with 15 points on a 6-of-10 night from the floor, including sinking 3-of-4 from behind the line.
The Cavaliers took a good Iowa team to the wire. How good an Iowa team? Good enough for the entire fourth row of the media section to be filled with NBA scouts getting a look at a few Hawkeyes.
Still, this one didn’t have to be a moral victory. Virginia had the last shot, last two shots, actually. Clark missed a runner in the lane, and Shedrick, after gathering the offensive rebound, had his shot blocked at the buzzer.
Even at the moment, you had a feeling that the inability to close this one out might come back to haunt the ‘Hoos.
Virginia 57, Pitt 56
Gardner scored five points in the final 11 seconds, including a stickback 12-footer that bounded off every part of the rim and even kissed the backboard before falling with nine-tenths of a second left, to lift Virginia to a 57-56 win over Pitt on Dec. 3.
The ‘Hoos had gone without a basket for more than seven minutes, reminiscent of the opener, a loss to Navy.
Pitt coach Jeff Capel had his team go zone down the stretch, and it worked. After a Shedrick dunk gave the Cavaliers a 50-43 lead with 7:21 to go, Virginia missed seven straight shots from the floor.
The Panthers took advantage. After a pair of Clark free throws made it 52-45 with 5:50 to go, Pitt went on an 11-0 run.
After a Franklin miss from three with 28 seconds left – Franklin was 0-of-6 from the bonus-phere for the night – Jamarius Burton drained both ends of a one-and-one to put Pitt up 56-52 with 25 seconds left.
Franklin missed a layup, but Pitt couldn’t corral the rebound, giving Virginia possession for an inbounds under the basket.
Clark found Gardner on the inbounds for a layup and foul. The free throw made it a one-point game with 10 ticks left.
Virginia’s defense got the ball back, forcing a turnover on the inbounds – a five-second call.
Bennett called timeout to set up a play, which resulted in a clean look from three for Murray.
The shot was long. Gardner tipped the rebound to himself, stepped back, and his shot hit every part of the iron it could, the glass, probably collected some magic dust as it hurtled through the air, before finally falling.
Whew.
James Madison 52, Virginia 49
JMU held Virginia without a bucket for nearly 13 minutes in the first half, but the ‘Hoos fought back to actually take the lead three times in the final four minutes.
It was JMU that hit the big shots down the stretch – a pair of tough jumpers from Takal Molson, who’s at his third school in four years – to get the 52-49 win.
It was the first win over Virginia in Madison program history, and it came before a raucous sellout crowd at the school’s new, sorta, kinda, Atlantic Union Bank Center.
Virginia got out to an early 10-2 lead, then went ice cold, almost literally. The ‘Hoos scored one point on their next 17 possessions, going 0-of-10 from the field with six turnovers, as the Dukes went on a 22-1 run.
A Clark three with three seconds left finally got the lid off the rim and made it 24-14 JMU at the break.
A 10-0 Virginia run over a 2:23 stretch of the second half got the Cavaliers back on top, 45-44, on a Franklin short jumper with 3:50 to go.
The defense would be what would let UVA down late, as JMU hit its last four shots from the field, taking the lead for good with 1:10 to go on a contested lane jumper by Molson, then, after Franklin missed from the corner, Molson scored on a turnaround in the lane with 22 seconds left.
Virginia had two chances to tie it, with Clark missing on a twisting three from 23 feet with six seconds left, then, after Terrell Strickland missed the front end of a one-and-one with four seconds left, Franklin missed a halfcourt heave at the buzzer.
This would easily be the worst loss of the season for Virginia. JMU finished 15-14 overall and 6-12 in its final season in the CAA.
Virginia 75, Clemson 65
Clemson had won 67-50 at JPJ on Dec. 22, another low point of the season for the ‘Hoos, but Virginia had recovered and went out and won on the road at Syracuse, 74-69, on Jan. 1.
Then came the rematch with Clemson, this time at Littlejohn, and the UVA defense showed up, holding the Tigers without a field goal for a seven-minute stretch of the second half to key the 75-65 win.
For the second straight game, the Cavaliers shot better than 50 percent from the floor, and it was the result of attacking the paint.
In the home loss to Clemson on Dec. 22, more than half of UVA’s shots from the floor were threes, and the ‘Hoos were just 6-of-22 from behind the arc.
In this one, Virginia got to the rim – the Cavaliers were 11-of-14 on layups and dunks – and to the free-throw line.
On the night, UVA was 21-of-24 at the charity stripe.
It was still a tight game most of the way. Virginia led by as many as eight in the first half, but an 11-2 Clemson run put the home team up one, 37-36, at the break.
The game featured 15 ties and 15 lead changes, the last lead change coming, as it turned out, on a pair of Gardner free throws with 6:51 to go that put UVA up 58-57.
It was 60-59 when Franklin connected on a jumper at the top of the key with 5:34 to go, igniting a 7-0 run punctuated by a Clark three that extended the lead to eight, at 67-59, with 4:05 on the clock.
It wouldn’t get closer than six thereafter.
NC State 77, Virginia 63
NC State softened up Virginia with nine first-half threes, then went to work at the rim in the second half, on the way to a 77-63 win that wasn’t nearly as close as the score makes it out to be.
The Cavaliers actually led this one 26-18 at the 8:58 mark of the first half. A Shedrick layup had UVA at 11-of-16 shooting from the floor at that point.
State made 10 of its last 12 shots to close out the first half, five of the makes from three, to close out the half on a 25-6 run that put the Pack up, 43-32, at the break.
A Beekman three 49 seconds into the second half got the margin down to 10, but that was as close as it would get.
An 11-2 NC State run pushed the margin to 19 at the 15:27 mark, and the rout was on.
How bad was this one for Virginia’s resume? Not as bad as JMU (NET: 216) or Navy (NET: 168), but State (NET: 146) did finish last in the ACC.
Virginia 69, Duke 68
Two nights after a convincing 71-58 win over Miami, Beekman came up with the two biggest plays of his life – a steal and bucket with 1:48 to go to tie it, then a go-ahead three from the left corner with 1.1 seconds to go that lifted Virginia to an improbable 69-68 win at #7 Duke on Feb. 7.
Virginia led most of the way, but Duke seemed to finally take control with a 7-0 run over a two-minute stretch. A Wendell Moore Jr. three with 4:38 on the clock got the run started, cutting the UVA lead to one, at 63-62, and a Jeremy Roach jumper at the four-minute mark put the Blue Devils on top for the first time since midway through the first half.
A Trevor Keels driving layup then extended the Duke lead to three, at 66-63, with 2:49 to go.
Franklin made one of two free throws to cut the deficit to a bucket at the 2:35 mark.
Virginia forced a Keels miss, and Bennett called a timeout to set up a play, which he ran for Beekman, who got to the rim, but had his shot blocked by Theo John.
The rebound went to Jeremy Roach, who promptly had his pocket picked from behind by Beekman, who made a layup as he was getting fouled by Roach.
Beekman missed the and-one free throw, but the score was tied at 66 with 1:47 to go.
Duke, which had the advantage of the whistles all night long, connecting on 18-of-22 at the line, while Virginia was just 5-of-9, got a pair of free throws from Keels that put the Blue Devils back on top, 68-66, with 1:28 left.
Clark missed a layup with 1:18 to go, but Virginia retained possession when Duke couldn’t keep the rebound in play, then Clark missed from three with 1:07 on the clock, and Moore snared the board.
Virginia got its last stop of the night on Duke’s next possession, forcing a Paolo Banchero turnover with 32 seconds left.
Franklin, with 10 seconds left, missed a layup, and John rebounded for Duke, but Clark was able to tie him up for a held ball, and Virginia, fortunately, had the alternate possession.
Bennett called another timeout to set up the final shot, which saw the ball go first to Clark, who then found Beekman in the corner behind the arc, off a nice screen set by Shedrick.
Beekman hit the shot as he was hit on the right arm, with, predictably, no foul called.
It was Virginia’s second make from three on the night.
The Cavaliers finished 2-of-12 from three.
Duke, after a Mike Krzyzewski timeout, was able to get the ball downcourt for a Banchero three, but the shot hit the top of the backboard as the buzzer sounded.
Virginia 74, Miami 71
Virginia trailed by as many as 10 early in the second half, then led by as many as nine, before holding on by fingernails in the dirt for a 74-71 win at Miami Feb. 19.
The win completes a regular-season sweep of the ‘Canes for Virginia, and gave the Cavaliers a much-needed Quadrant 1 win.
Anything but a win seemed in the cards after Miami went into the locker room on a 9-0 first-half-closing run, with Virginia going scoreless in the last 5:06, and then the ‘Hoos turned the ball over on the opening possession of the second half, leading to an easy Kameron McGusty layup that pushed the Miami lead to 10, at 40-30.
That bucket gave Miami 15 fast-break points on the night. It would be the last fast-break hoop of the night for the ‘Canes.
Virginia answered with a 23-4 run over the next seven minutes to go up nine, and never trailed thereafter, but the game was a game into the final couple of minutes.
Miami got to 61-57 with 3:26 left on a Jordan Miller post-up. A pair of Beekman free throws and then a Jayden Gardner jumper, the latter with 1:39 on the clock, and as the shot-clock buzzer was sounding, giving Virginia an eight-point lead.
After a McGusty miss, Clark missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Isaiah Wong answered with a three that bounced on the rim before finally settling into the net to get the margin back down to five with 1:09 to go.
Gardner icily drained both ends of a one-and-one at the 1:06 mark. Charlie Moore, fouled on a drive, made both ends of his two-shot foul with 56 seconds left.
Clark went 1-of-2 to push the lead back to six; naturally, Moore hit a stepback three with 37.6 seconds left, and it was a three-point game.
Gardner then went 1-of-2 at the line with 29 seconds left.
McGusty missed, and Shedrick hit both ends with 21 seconds left to get the lead back to six, and it wouldn’t get closer than four after that, until Moore made a meaningless layup at the buzzer.
Virginia could’ve done a better job of closing the game out. The Cavaliers were just 7-of-11 at the line in the final 1:20.
Florida State 64, Virginia 63
Matthew Cleveland airballed a second-half free throw. He made the hoop that counted, a three from 35 feet at the buzzer that stunned Virginia, 64-63, on Senior Day, Feb. 26.
Franklin had made a floater in the lane with 1.0 seconds on the clock to put Virginia up, 63-61.
That came after a Cleveland driving layup, after Franklin had missed the back end of a 1-and-1, had tied the score with 6.3 seconds to go.
The clock had originally shown 5.5 seconds after that Cleveland make, but game officials reviewed the clock on the TV monitor and added eight-tenths of a second back to the clock.
That would prove crucial.
It was, and wasn’t, the final shot that beat the Cavaliers.
Virginia led 56-46 with 3:26 to go on a Gardner layup.
Florida State made its last eight shots from the field.
Virginia, on its side, endured a 9-of-32 shooting performance in the second half, and while the ‘Noles were down double-digits two different times in the second half, and were still down nine with 2:19 left, they were able to hang around.
A Cleveland jumper at the 2:06 mark cut the deficit to seven, and a backcourt turnover by Franklin gave FSU another possession, which was translated into points on a Jalen Warley jumper that made it 59-54.
Gardner made 1-of-2 at the line to put Virginia up six at the 1:33 mark.
RayQuan Evans scored on a fast break after the make by Gardner, cutting the margin to four.
Virginia tried to work clock on its next possession, but Gardner missed a stepback jumper with 57 seconds left.
Cleveland turned that into a Cleveland and-one at the rim, and it was 60-59 UVA with 45 seconds left.
Clark’s only turnover of the game came on Virginia’s next possession, but Kody Stattmann got it back with 14 seconds left.
Franklin was fouled in the backcourt, made the first shot of the ensuing 1-and-1, then missed the second, setting up the wild closing sequence.
Story by Chris Graham
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