#4 Virginia Holds Off Upset-Minded Notre Dame
Posted on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019, 7:01 pm
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No. 4 Virginia saw a much different opponent Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena than three weeks prior. The Cavaliers blew Notre Dame away in South Bend, but had to sweat out a 60-54 win in this one.
The Fighting Irish hung around all day and made the most of a subpar shooting performance from the Wahoos, but the combination of sophomore De’Andre Hunter and junior Kyle Guy was too much in the end, as the duo combined to score all but 18 of the team’s points on the day.
“I just wanted to be more aggressive,” Hunter said. “I felt like I was floating a little bit and I just got in the right spots and my teammates gave me the ball.”
Hunter poured in 13 points over the final 16-plus minutes and finished with his third career double-double to lead the charge.
“Hunter just took over, he’s really, really good,” said Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, whose team looked vastly improved from the 27-point defeat on Jan. 26.
Hunter’s play was exactly what the Cavaliers needed when the shots weren’t falling and the Irish defense was tenacious, as UVA coach Tony Bennett explained.
“I thought [Hunter] made some really good plays in the high-post and low-post,” Bennett told reporters. “[Notre Dame] was mixing in some zone and some man-to-man. We were trying to get the ball moving, stretch the zone and then get [Hunter], or anybody really, touches in the high-post. A lot of times when you touch the high-post, they would match up and play man. That’s where, depending on who’s matched up, [you want] to be aggressive and try to make the right play. Certainly, De’Andre did that.
“He’s very good in that high-post, whether it’s a one dribble pull-up or a hard drive, and we needed that. When you don’t shoot the ball particularly well, and we got some really good looks, that challenges you when people are packing in a zone or doing what Notre Dame did.”
Virginia (22-2, 10-2 ACC) held a 6-point lead Saturday with time winding down, but Hunter couldn’t connect on the front end of a 1-and-1 with 57 seconds left and the Irish had one final push left after giving the Wahoos all they could handle. It was one of the few blemishes on Hunter’s day, but left the door open for the Irish.
Freshman guard Prentiss Hubb got a step on Guy on the following trip to cut it to four, and then another Notre Dame freshman, Nate Laszewski, came away with the ball off the UVA inbound pass and scored — even though he may have gotten away with an extra step or two prior to the shot — to make it 54-52 with 34 ticks left, and you could feel the tension in the building.
UVA freshman Kihei Clark made the crowd a little more nervous trying to break the Irish press on the following play as he flung the ball dangerously over to Guy at midcourt, nearly avoiding a disastrous finish, but Guy sank all four of his free throws down the stretch to fend off the valiant Irish effort and clinch the win.
It certainly wasn’t a thing of beauty by any means, but Guy echoed his coach’s words in the postgame regarding the close victory.
“I think that we are never going to apologize for a win, no matter what it looks like,” said Guy. “Those are Coach Bennett’s words. I think we are just happy that we got the win.”
Neither team was hitting much of anything over the opening minutes of the contest. After Guy scored on the game’s initial possession, the Cavaliers misfired on their next seven consecutive shot attempts.
The Irish (13-11, 3-8) couldn’t take advantage, however, missing 10 of their first 12, as Guy caught fire with back-to-back triples to breathe some life into the offense. Ty Jerome followed with a 3 of his own following the Wahoos’ second shot-clock violation of the day to give UVA an early 11-4 lead.
Notre Dame’s T.J. Gibbs answered with a pair of long balls to cut it back to 1, and the remainder of the half was a game of runs.
Virginia rattled off 7 in a row, the Irish responded with 5 straight. Hunter got into the act, knocking down consecutive free-throw line jumpers to counter the Notre Dame 2-3 zone, but Notre Dame again trimmed the lead to 1, 20-19.
Braxton Key pinned a John Mooney putback attempt, which led to a Hunter 3 on the other end, and then Key came away with a steal on the ensuing trip and split a pair of free throws before Jerome knocked another one down from deep, making it 27-19 with 1:50 left in the half.
The Irish reeled off a pair of 3s — one by D.J. Harvey and one by Mooney — to get back within two, but Jack Salt delivered on an up-and-under with :08 showing to provide momentum going into the break, up 29-25.
Mooney scored 15 seconds into the second half before a 10-3 UVA spurt — highlighted by a Mamadi Diakite block on one end and outstanding ball movement on the other to free up Guy for a wide-open 3 — gave the ‘Hoos some breathing room.
Once again, the Irish answered right back with their own 10-2 run and it was 41-40 midway through the second half.
Still leading by 1, 45-44, a few minutes later, Virginia scored nine unanswered to take its largest lead, 54-44, with 4:54 to go, but the Irish continued to fight until the final horn.
“[Notre Dame] played so much better than when we played them the first time,” admitted Bennett. “They were scrappy and competitive and they have ability guys that can make plays. They’re coming off of an ACC win so they challenged us in that regard.”
Notre Dame shot 35 percent (19 for 55) from the field and 27 percent (8 of 30) from long range. Gibbs had a team-high 17 points, Harvey added 10 — all in the first half — and Mooney recorded his ACC-leading 16th double-double of the year with 11 points and 15 rebounds.
The ‘Hoos were 37 percent on the night (19 for 52) and 35 percent from deep (8 for 23), knocking down 14 of their 17 free-throw attempts and winning the rebound battle, 36-33.
Guy posted a game-high 22 points, grabbed 6 boards and dished out 3 assists. He scored 10 of the first 13 Cavalier points of the game and hit four 3-pointers on the afternoon.
Hunter added 20 points and matched his career high with 10 rebounds.
“[Hunter] is so good and talented at one-on-one basketball and there is not anybody in the country who can stop him,” said Guy. “So when he gets going, people start helping out more and that gets Ty, myself and other guys open shots.”
Jerome didn’t have his best shooting performance, but sank two timely triples in the first half and finished with 8 points. The rest of the team combined for just 10 points. Diakite didn’t start but offered 5 points, 5 rebounds and a pair of swats in 27 minutes off the bench.
After not losing the ball in the first half, UVA gave it away 8 times after halftime, and Coach Bennett admitted the number of turnovers lately is a bit of a concern and must be ironed out the rest of the way.
Virginia heads back out on the road Monday to face Virginia Tech, another team it cruised past in the first regular-season meeting, at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
