MBB: Hoos hang on for 63-58 win over American in non-conference finale

By Scott Ratcliffe

The Virginia men’s basketball team got all it could handle from a pesky American ballclub on Sunday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena, but held on for a 63-58 victory to close out the non-conference schedule.

Facing their largest deficit of the game [47-42] with less than eight minutes remaining, the Cavaliers (7-5) used a 14-4 run that spanned over five minutes to gain separation, and went ahead 56-51 on a Taine Murray corner triple with 1:48 to play.

The Eagles (6-6) kept fighting and got within three points on three separate occasions across the final 1:20 of the contest, but the Wahoos were able to seal the victory from the free-throw line, knocking down 7 of 8 in the last 24.7 seconds.

“We could have just packed it in,” UVA interim head coach Ron Sanchez said of his troops, “and they decided to stick together and battle, and came out with the win.”

San Diego State transfer forward Elijah Saunders set a new career-high with 21 points to go along with a game-high 8 rebounds to lead the way, as the team will head into the holidays on a winning note.

After trailing by four at halftime, American came out smoking to start the second half, as an early 11-3 spurt — highlighted by a trio of Colin Smalls 3-pointers — put the visitors in front, 41-37, with 13:25 to go.

UVA misfired on eight of its first 10 field-goal attempts coming out of the break and went scoreless for over five minutes before Andrew Rohde sank a 3 from the corner to cut it to one with 11:12 on the clock.

Saunders briefly put the Hoos back on top, 42-41, scoring a second-chance bucket with 9:26 to go. The Eagles answered with back-to-back 3-pointers by Matt Mayock and Geoff Sprouse, and the Cavaliers went into the under-8 media timeout staring at the aforementioned five-point deficit.

Isaac McKneely started the rally with his third trifecta of the afternoon out of the break, then Jacob Cofie tied it up on a great move before Murray put the Hoos back in front on a sweet backdoor cut to make it 49-47.

The Patriot League’s preseason pick for Player of the Year, senior forward Matt Rogers, tied it back up with a trip to the charity stripe and then put the Eagles back in the lead, 51-49, on an easy layup off a Saunders turnover with just over five minutes to play.

UVA responded with seven unanswered points and would not trail again. A pair of Greg Jones free throws with 1:20 left cut American’s deficit to 59-56 before Cofie came up short on the other end, and the Eagles had a chance to make it interesting. However, Sprouse had his entry pass stolen away by Cofie, and he quickly got it to Saunders, who converted both shots of a one-and-one trip with 24.7 ticks showing.

“I would just say [I’m] getting more comfortable with our offense,” said Saunders, “kind of knowing where my points are going to come from, and knowing when to be a screener, when to try to be more aggressive.”

Smalls’ ensuing 3-point attempt was off, as Saunders secured the board and split two free throws to make it a two-possession affair, 59-53. Mayock kept it interesting, nailing another triple — his fourth of the day — to cut it back to three with 10.7 seconds remaining.

Saunders was immediately hacked and hit two more freebies with 9.2 on the clock to extend the lead to five, and the Eagles got one last basket on a putback by Jones with just one second to go before Murray was fouled with six-tenths to play, and converted both of his free throws for the final result.

“It’s a luxury when one of your power forwards is the guy you can get the ball to at the end of the game and have him try to seal the game for you,” Sanchez said of Saunders’ clutch performance at the line. “I think he did a fantastic job down the stretch.”

Virginia shot 46 percent for the game (23 for 50) and 42 percent (8 of 19) from downtown. After missing four of their first five from the foul line, the Hoos wound up shooting 64 percent (9 for 14). UVA prevailed on the boards, 33-26, outscored the Eagles in the lane, 26-12, and scored 10 points off of 8 American turnovers.

Aside from Saunders’ big day, Murray had another impressive performance off the bench, scoring 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting (3 for 4 from long range) after tying his own career high of 14 earlier in the week against Memphis. Both Saunders and Murray believe that the team is beginning to gel together more heading into what could be a pretty wide-open conference race.

“We have a little break here, but once we come back, just really trying to stay consistent with what we’re doing, and then just excited to get into ACC play.” Murray said.

McKneely added 11 points (4 for 10 FG; 3 of 8 from deep), while Cofie had a solid all-around afternoon in his second career start, finishing with 6 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and a pair of steals across 25 minutes.

“I feel like we’re starting to click and find our identity,” Saunders said of wrapping up the non-conference slate.

Mayock put up 16 points to lead the Eagles, who shot 38 percent (19 for 50) from the field, 35 percent from 3-point land (11 of 31) and sank all nine attempts from the line. Rogers and Smalls each added 12 in the loss.

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Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia improved to 7-5 overall
• UVA ended a three-game losing streak in its last game before the holiday break
• The Hoos lost previous pre-holiday games vs. Clemson, Miami and Memphis over the past three seasons
• UVA is 6-1 at home and has a 104-11 record in non-conference action at John Paul Jones Arena since 2009-10
• UVA used a 7-0 run to gain a 56-51 lead in the second half
• UVA made eight 3-pointers and has made six or more in each of its 12 games
• UVA led 32-28 at halftime, improving to 6-1 when leading at the half
• UVA has held eight opponents to fewer than 30 points in the first half
• UVA had a pair of 8-0 runs in the first half
• UVA forced one shot clock violation (6 this season)
• The Cavaliers have limited eight of their opponents to 65 or fewer points
• UVA outrebounded American, 33-26

Series Notes

• The Cavaliers are 6-1 all-time, including a 6-0 mark in Charlottesville, against American in the all-time series that dates to 1938

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Elijah Saunders (21), Taine Murray (13), Isaac McKneely (11),
• Saunders had a career-high 21 points
• Saunders reached double figures for the seventh time (14 career)
• Saunders tied a career high with a team-high eight rebounds
• McKneely scored in double figures for the ninth time (35 career)
• McKneely (3 3-pointers) has made multiple 3-pointers in eight games
• Murray reached double figures for the second time (7 career)
• Murray has recorded back-to-back double figure scoring games for the first time
• Murray tied a career high with 14 points vs. Memphis on Dec. 18
• UVA started Dai Dai Ames, Andrew Rohde, Jacob Cofie, McKneely and Saunders for the second straight game

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers will have over a week off for the holiday break before hosting NC State at noon on New Year’s Eve (a week fromTuesday) on ESPN2.