#2 Virginia Bombs Syracuse, 79-53

By Scott Ratcliffe

They may be calling for snow over the next two days in chilly Upstate New York, but one thing we can confirm is that it was raining 3’s at the Carrier Dome Monday night thanks to Kyle Guy, De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome.

Virginia’s “Big Three” put up 18 — count ‘em — 18 triples in a 79-53 win at Syracuse, matching the school’s single-game record set in 2007 against Gonzaga.

“Those guys were terrific in the second half…,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said. “Ty was really good in the high post, as was De’Andre, and then Kyle stretched the floor so we put guys in some spots that we thought would cause some trouble for them if we were making shots.

“It’s a terrific zone and we just had our night tonight against it. And they were a little off offensively, but that’s not to take away from the second half and the way our guys played there. It’s hard to beat a team when a team is clicking that way with not just one guy, but three guys.”

UVA sits in the driver’s seat for its fourth ACC regular-season title in the last six years with a win over Louisville in Saturday’s finale.

Trailing 43-42 with just over 15 minutes to play, the second-ranked Cavaliers (27-2, 15-2 ACC) scored 11 straight and 27 of the game’s next 30 points, transforming a 1-point deficit into a 23-point lead in a matter of under 10 minutes.

Guy, who finished with a game-high 25 points, hit 4 of his career-high 8 long balls during the spurt, while Hunter and Jerome added 3 more as the Orange (19-11, 10-7) made just one shot after hanging with the Wahoos prior to the huge momentum swing.

Good thing the deep balls were falling for Bennett’s team early on, as the Cavaliers didn’t make a shot from inside the arc until a Braxton Key bucket at the 8:50 mark of the first half. They had missed the previous six from in close, but sank 6 from the perimeter over the first 11 minutes of the contest.

Syracuse led by as many as 6 late in the half after a 9-1 run — highlighted by back-to-back Buddy Boeheim buckets — to make it 31-25 with just under four minutes until halftime.

The ‘Hoos closed strong, scoring 7 unanswered — 4 from Hunter on a pair of strong takes and a long 3 from Guy — to grab a one-point edge before Frank Howard’s 3-pointer with 37 ticks left allowed the Orange to carry a 34-32 advantage at the break.

Virginia made 8 of its 12 3-point attempts over the opening 20 minutes while shooting just 2 for 10 on the inside. The Wahoos committed 8 turnovers in the first half and allowed 8 Syracuse offensive rebounds.

“We just talked about some stats,” Bennett said of his halftime talk. “The eight offensive rebounds that we gave up and the eight turnovers and said, ‘Let’s get this thing to how we have to play.’ And it wasn’t fire and brimstone or anything like that. I was just telling them that we need to get after it, and we need to play ball. We had to get tougher defensively and we had to clean up a couple of those areas and battle. It was similar to a lot of halftime speeches.”

Syracuse leading scorer Tyus Battle’s only 3-pointer of the night gave the Orange the 43-42 lead with 15:05 to play, and from that point on, UVA outscored them 37-10, nailing 8 more trifectas — including one from way downtown from Jerome — in the process.

The final 3-point dagger came with just over four minutes left when Hunter’s fifth of the night set his new career high from deep and gave his team a 23-point lead, as the Orange faithful had seen enough and started heading for the exits.

UVA outscored Syracuse 47-19 in the second half alone, shooting 62 percent from the floor (18 of 29) and 77 percent from distance (10 of 13) across the final 20 minutes while giving the ball away only three times after the break.

On the night, Syracuse was held to 33-percent shooting (19 for 57) from the field and 32 percent from long range (8 for 25). Battle scored 7 of his 11 points in second half after shooting 2 for 9 in the first. Elijah Hughes and Buddy Boeheim also added 11 each to lead the Orange.

Virginia shot 55 percent for the game and 72 percent from 3-point land, and outrebounded the Orange, 35-33.

Guy not only led UVA in the scoring category, but the rebounding one as well, hauling down 7 boards. All 10 of his shots came from beyond the arc as he moved past Wahoo greats J.R. Reynolds (221) and Sean Singletary (222) into 4th on the school’s career 3-point list with 228.

Hunter did it all, finishing with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and a career-best 3 blocks. Jerome tied a single-game school record with his 14 assists to go along with his 16 points, good for his third career double-double (all of which have come in ACC play this season), and also recorded 4 steals.

Mamadi Diakite came off the bench to score 9 big points — all in the final 14 minutes of the game — to go with 5 rebounds and a career-high matching 4 swats on the evening.

Now, Bennett’s troops will have the next four days to get rested and ready for Saturday’s ever-important 4-p.m. tilt with Louisville, a team the Cavaliers defeated by a dozen after another huge second-half performance on the road Feb. 23.

John Paul Jones Arena will be rocking as the Wahoo faithful in attendance hope to witness some celebratory net-cutting by game’s end.