UVA Advances To Elite Eight With Win Over Ducks

By Scott Ratcliffe

LOUISVILLE — Virginia head coach Tony Bennett described Thursday night’s Sweet Sixteen battle with 12th-seeded Oregon as a “knuckle buster.” His top-seeded Cavaliers survived a valiant effort from one of the nation’s hottest teams, 53-49, to move onto the South Region championship game against No. 3 seed Purdue on Saturday at 8:49 p.m.

Bennett’s Wahoos (32-3) did it with their defense, holding the Ducks without a field goal over the final five minutes and 41 seconds.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Bennett said. “I think we won that with our defense, and then timely plays were there. … It was a knuckle buster or whatever you want to call it. We had to fight.”

The Ducks (25-13), winners of their previous 10 contests, took their final lead of the night with 5:41 to go on Louis King’s 3-pointer that gave his team a 45-42 edge.

“I think during that stretch, there were some possessions where we came down, took some quick shots,” said Oregon’s Paul White of the final five-plus minutes, in which the Ducks misfired on their final five field-goal attempts. “Virginia does a real good job of just making things difficult and kind of stretching possessions out, so I think that played to their strong suit.”

After King’s go-ahead 3 (his third in a row), UVA freshman point guard Kihei Clark answered right back with a triple of his own, his third — and biggest — of the night, to tie it back up.

De’Andre Hunter came away with a steal on the ensuing trip before Ty Jerome delivered another huge 3-ball with 3:33 left on the clock, giving the ‘Hoos a 48-45 lead, and they would not relinquish it.

“Honestly, I’m thinking about the [3-pointer] I missed after that,” admitted Jerome, when asked about the go-ahead trey. “That would have really sealed the game. I want that one back.”

Neither team could get one to drop until Kyle Guy found Hunter, a projected NBA lottery pick, mysteriously wide open in the paint for the dagger, an easy lay-in that pushed the Cavalier lead to five with just 27 ticks showing.

“I think we played great,” Hunter said of the final stretch. “We were communicating, we were scrambling, keeping guys in front, rebounding. We were doing all the things we practice every day. I mean, I think those last five minutes just shows how great we can be.”

King hit a pair of free throws to cut Virginia’s lead to three, but there was just 1.1 seconds to work with for the Ducks, who fouled Clark with half a second remaining. His first swished through, all but sealing the deal, and the UVA faithful began to celebrate.

The Wahoos’ offensive numbers may not have been the greatest — 36 percent from the field (20 for 56 FG) and just 27 percent (9 for 33) from deep — but as Jerome described, Bennett’s message during a called timeout with 4:42 to go was very clear.

“[Bennett] called a set for us to run and he said, ‘But what matters is our defense,’” Jerome recalled. “That’s what carried us all year, and that’s what’s going to take us as far as we can, as far as we want to go.”

Things weren’t looking so great for Wahoo fans during the opening half, as the Ducks built a 16-10 lead when UVA made just 4 of its first 20 shots. But, just like in each of the first two Big-Dance victories, the Cavaliers used a 13-2 scoring run to take a 5-point lead, and Mamadi Diakite made a nice move in the final seconds to give the Cavaliers a 30-22 halftime advantage. Diakite flushed one home on a terrific shot-fake and dish from Clark during the key scoring spurt.

Guy again struggled with his shot during the opening 20 minutes, connecting on just 2 of 9 attempts and missed all five of his 3-point tries, extending his streak of missed long-balls to 17. Everyone involved knew it was only a matter of time before Guy started to heat up, and he finally knocked one down to start the second half.

“It felt great,” Guy said of seeing one go through the net. “Any time I can get Ty or Kihei an assist, I think they always appreciate that, so I’m going to keep shooting. I don’t really feel like I’m ever out of rhythm, so as long as they have confidence in me, I’ll always have confidence in myself.”

The Ducks were led by King’s game-high 16 points, while Payton Pritchard added 11 and White finished with 10. Oregon shot 38 percent on the night (17 for 45) and 36 percent from long range (9 for 25). The game featured five ties and five lead changes, but UVA led for nearly 25 minutes on the evening/morning (the game, which didn’t start until after 10:30, wasn’t over until the wee hours of Friday).

“We’re the only team in the tournament playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday — I don’t know how fair that is,” joked Bennett.

For the ‘Hoos, Jerome led the way with 13 points, while Clark had 12 (each had 6 assists). Hunter wound up with 11 on 4-of-13 shooting, as Oregon did all they could to limit his production. Guy had 10, shooting 4 for 15 overall and 2 for 11 from deep. Diakite, who once again got the start over Jack Salt finished with 7 points and a game-high 11 rebounds against the lengthy Ducks.

UVA won the rebounding battle, 34-31, and committed just 8 turnover on the night while scoring 10 points off of 11 Oregon giveaways.

Up next is Purdue, a team that held on in an overtime thriller to knock off No. 2 seed Tennessee, 99-94, in Thursday’s first game at the KFC Yum! Center.

It’s unlikely that the ‘Hoos and Boilermakers will be putting up those kinds of points Saturday night, but Guy & Company are fully prepared for another nail-biter, should it occur.

“We’re in March and it’s 40-minute territory, as Coach always tells us,” said Guy. “So it helps that we try to stay calm under pressure and that we try to execute and get stops defensively — no matter what the score is, or how hectic the game is going. That will always be in our advantage and we’re going to try to continue to bring that into every game.”