With 17 minutes left in game, Virginia had Hurricanes just where it wanted them

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Less than three minutes into the second half, Jim Larrañaga knew his Miami Hurricanes were in trouble.

Virginia, which had trailed by eight at the half, was surging back early in the second, ignited by a Kihei Clark 3-pointer that ended a six-minute drought for the visiting Cavaliers. Combined with a Jayden Gardner layup and a Kody Stattmann triple, UVA had cut Miami’s lead to 40-38 and Larrañaga had seen enough.

“We played a terrific first half, but the start of the second half Virginia really took over, Kihei Clark in particular just took over the game,” Larrañaga said. “I called the earliest timeout of this season, and maybe ever, when I called it with 17 minutes left in the game, but I saw the signs and certainly hoped we could correct it, but nothing went well for us for a while.”

Virginia, desperately trying to add to its postseason resume, had been prodded by Tony Bennett at halftime to “leave everything on the floor,” and his players got the message. Bennett knew that his style of offense was incredibly difficult for Miami to defend, and that eventually the Hurricanes just might wear down.

Larrañaga knew it, too. During that early second-half timeout (17:18 precisely), he warned his players that Virginia had become the aggressor, and that his team’s energy and intensity had dropped.

“I told them that if we didn’t pick it up, this was going to be just like it was at their place,” Larrañaga shared after the game.

His warning wasn’t enough, as the Cavaliers went on a 23-4 run and outlasted the Hurricanes in the final minutes for a 74-71 win, UVA’s sixth straight win over Miami (including three straight in Coral Gables). The win gave Virginia a season sweep over the ‘Canes, after beating them two weeks ago in Charlottesville by a 71-58 count.

UVA shot 62.5 percent from the field in the second half, which mirrored its first-half effort against the Hurricanes in Charlottesville, a game in which Virginia made 60 percent of its shots in that game.

With the win — an important Quad-1 win — the Cavaliers improved to 17-10 overall and 11-6 in the ACC, tied for fifth place with Wake Forest and only a half-game behind third-place Miami (19-8, 11-5) and North Carolina.

Even with the big run and Virginia leading 65-57 with less than two minutes to play (see accompanying game story), Miami managed to trim the lead to 68-65 on a Charlie Moore triple with less than 40 seconds to go. Virginia iced the win with a parade of free throws (4 of 6) and a Clark layup down the stretch.

Gardner scored 15 of his team-high 23 points in the second half as Clark — who joined the UVA career 1,000-points club in the game — put up 14 of his 17 after the break. Gardner, who made 9 of 14 field-goal attempts, also had seven rebounds. Kadin Shedrick posted 13 points and 13 rebounds off the bench, adding to his double-double mystique. UVA is 8-1 when the seven-footer gets a double-double.

Leading 60-55, Bennett said afterward that he told his team that “it comes down to can you take care of the ball? We had to get a stop and take care of the ball. It was who was going to flinch or who would not yield.”

Shedrick said that after the Cavaliers cut the lead in the second half, “we just wanted to keep playing hard and hoped [Miami] would wear down, get exhausted.”

“Our defense has never been one that can just play man-to-man and guard guys,” Larrañaga said. “Virginia’s offense and its defense work very well against us and that’s why we’ve struggled against them through the years.”

Miami doesn’t match up well against Virginia’s bigger lineup, even though Francisco Caffaro played only nine and a half minutes. Shedrick clocked more than 30 because Bennett felt his mobility would be crucial in the game against a quicker Miami team. Gardner, who plays bigger than his frame, was hard for the Hurricanes to handle.

Nearly a minute before Larrañaga called his early second-half time out, Bennett inserted Stattmann for Armaan Franklin, who has been struggling offensively, but who had additionally been plagued by early foul trouble and was also suffering from a toe injury.

The final 18 minutes or so, Bennett did not substitute, using Stattmann, Gardner, Clark, Shedrick and Beekman to finish off the Hurricanes. It was a bold move by Bennett, but it worked.

Not only did Stattmann contribute eight points, but also did a good job defensively on Miami’s Kameron McGusty, who was held to seven points (he had a team-high 20) in the second half.

Virginia, battling for its postseason life, hosts Duke Wednesday in a crucial game for the Cavaliers’ chances. UVA upset Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium two weeks ago.