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 on Saturday.
The win completes a regular-season sweep of the ‘Canes for Virginia (17-10, 11-6 ACC), and gives the Cavaliers a much-needed Quadrant 1 win.
Who knows, dang, Virginia might move up a spot or two in the NET with this one.
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 Reece 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, Kihei 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 Kadin 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.
That made things a little hairy for fans at home in the closing stretch.
Aside from that, it’s hard to complain about much.
Gardner finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 from the line, along with seven rebounds and three blocks.
Clark had a nice bounceback night, with 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting, 3-of-8 from three and 4-of-6 at the line, with five assists and three turnovers in 39 minutes.
Shedrick may have earned his starting job back. The 6’11” sophomore had 13 points and 13 rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench.
Big ups as well to Kody Stattmann, who got a season-high 27 minutes off the bench, and finished with eight points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field, 1-of-3 from three, four rebounds, one assist and two blocks.
Virginia Notes
- Clark become the 50th Cavalier with 1,000 career points
- Gardner reached double figures for the 22nd time (95th career)
- Gardner’s consecutive free throw streak ended at 30
- Gardner has a 10-game double figure scoring streak
- Gardner matched a career high with three blocked shots
- Shedrick added a career-high 13 rebounds for his third career double-double
- Shedrick reached double figures for the ninth time (11th career)
- Clark (5 assists) passed Othell Wilson into sixth on UVA’s career assist list with 496.
- Clark reached double figures for the 14th time (48th career)
- Reece Beekman’s steal streak ended at 16
Story by Chris Graham
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