Salt Assaults Wolfpack in Second Half

By Jerry Ratcliffe

CHARLOTTE — When Thursday afternoon’s “Cavalanche” came, it caught upset-minded NC State completely by surprise.

The Wolfpack led No. 2 Virginia by a bucket at halftime and State fans, remembering taking the Cavaliers to overtime in their only other meeting this season, were hopeful. This time around, State had benefited from one of UVA’s coldest-shooting halves of the season, when both Ty Jerome and De’Andre Hunter were clearly off the mark.

Then BOOM.

It was as if King Kong had come crashing through the window, destroying everything in his path. But it wasn’t Kong. It was Jack, Jack Salt, the Cavaliers’ big Kiwi, whose offense had awakened as the unheralded senior unleashed a career-high 18 points on State en route to a 76-56 win over State in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals.

Talk about a Cavalanche — a term UVA fans have come to describe a second-half blitzkrieg that buries an opponent.

“I don’t know if you stared at me, but it was tough,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said about Virginia’s run that left the Wolfpack flattened. “Was a lot of things that happened in a short amount of time that kind of blew the game open.”

Keatts said his team was right there, then the next time he looked up at the scoreboard, “I remember it getting to 10, then I saw it go to 12.”

He could have kept counting because Virginia’s margin kept growing as Salt continued to attack State inside the paint while teammate Kyle Guy was delivering daggers from outside.

After the Wolfpack went up 31-27 in the first minute of the second half, Virginia went on its run, reeling of 30 points to State’s 12. By midway through the half, the Cavaliers had cruised to a 57-41 lead and were firmly in control as they won for the eighth straight time over State.

During that span, State was “Salted.” Or perhaps assaulted might have been more appropriate. The Virginia senior, who reminds most ACC fans of the Russian villain Drago in the Rocky movie, scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half.

And get this, Salt converted three consecutive “and-one’s,” a feat that astonished Virginia followers. A sub-.500 free throw shooter for his career (he was 9-20 for the season coming into Thursday’s game), Salt, with a new free-throw style, was 4 for 5.

If that wasn’t enough, consider that since Feb. 2 — a span of 10 games — Salt had scored a combined 18 points, the same point total he amassed against the Wolfpack in only one afternoon.

It was Salt who kick-started Virginia’s comeback with a reverse up-and-under, was fouled, and made the free throw. He converted three “and-one’s” within three minutes to give UVA a 37-36 lead, and the Wahoos never looked back. Meanwhile, Guy, who had kept the Cavaliers in the game in the first half with his long-distance shots, continued to pepper State’s defense from behind the arc in the second.

“The shots that Kyle Guy made were back-breakers,” Keatts said. “The way [Guy] played today, I don’t know that anybody would have beat them.”

Guy was 10 for 13 from the field and 7 for 9 from the arc for 29 points, one point shy of his career high vs. Marshall.

As good as Guy was, he knew Virginia’s hero on this day was sitting at the end of row of lockers in the Spectrum Center dressing room.

“You guys should be interviewing [Jack], not me,” Guy gleamed. “He was the player of the game.”

Guy was correct in that assessment.

Not only had Salt failed to make a field goal in his last six games (0 for 4), but hadn’t even made a free throw in the past five. All of a sudden, he couldn’t be stopped.

“The impact was big,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said of Salt’s scoring spree, mixed with a four-pointer by Guy that broke the game wide open. “You know, there’s momentum. We needed those. Those are just X-factor plays.”

Salt, who informed media covering the tournament not familiar with his game, that he had “never” had a game like that for Virginia, was his usual modest self.

“It was pretty awesome to get that and for the guys to find me down low,” he said.

Salt’s performance was probably the most impressive by a New Zealander in the state of North Carolina since unknown Michael Campbell came out of nowhere to win the U.S. Open in Pinehurst in 2005.

“Jack did all the little things,” Guy said.

The junior guard noticed that Salt had quickly gotten frustrated in the first half after a missed “bunny” (layup)  and hadn’t blocked out properly.

Salt confirmed that he came out for the second half with a more aggressive mindset.

“We were struggling a little bit the first half and I was just trying to do my part to help the team,” he said. “I felt like I wasn’t going up strong in the first half. I had two takes that were really weak. I wanted to improve in the second half.”

Salt got that out of the way quickly, when with 17:57 to play, he scored on a strong up-and-under move and was fouled by State’s Wyatt Walker, who had been tough for Salt to handle in the first meeting in Raleigh.

“I got the ball and [Walker] was kind of expecting me to pass it because that’s what I do when I get a pinch rebound,” Salt said in describing the play. “But it was there and I had the up-and-under. He’s a really strong player, and I have a lot of respect for him. To make that move on him was good.”

From that moment on, Virginia returned to its usual form.

“You could definitely say that,” said point guard Ty Jerome. “Jack gave us a great lift offensively. That play where he got the rebound and got the ‘and-one’ reverse layup was a huge momentum swing. I don’t think we looked back from there. He was awesome.”

Hunter said it was Salt’s free-throw shooting that amazed him.

“When he was hitting those, I knew it was going to be a good day,” Hunter said.

With his mother in the crowd, Salt played his best game in a Virginia uniform. Having struggled with back problems all season, he was more fluid and moved with more ease than usual, which helped him when he had a clear path to the basket for one of his seven (7 for 8) ferocious dunks.

Including the two-hand slam with just under eight minutes remaining when he was called for a technical by official Jamie Luckie for hanging onto the rim.

“I wasn’t trying to pull on the rim,” Salt said afterward, a fact that Bennett argued profusely with Luckie to no avail. “It might have looked like that but I just jumped from really far and dunked … I hadn’t been [physically] able to do that in a while, so I had to hold onto the rim or else I would have fell on my head.”

All of his teammates recognized that fact even if Luckie didn’t.

“I didn’t see it,” Guy said of that particular dunk. “I had turned around screaming because I knew he was going to dunk it. I wasn’t actually sure if he was going to make it because it was a pretty far jump. I know Jack and he would never get a technical purposely, so I know for a fact he only held on because he had to.”

Virginia, now 29-2 and 17-2 against ACC competition, marches onward, and will face Florida State (26-6) in Friday night’s semifinals.

Salt will be needed against the lengthy Seminoles.

“I’ll take 18 points from Jack Salt anytime,” Bennett said.

He might even settle for less.