UVA blows 5-point lead in 45 seconds in loss to SMU

By Jerry Ratcliffe

SMU saved its Get Out of Jail Free card for just the right time Wednesday night when the Mustangs hit three 3-pointers over the last 25 seconds, including the winning buzzer-beater to stun host Virginia, 54-52.

Prior to that long-range outburst, SMU had missed 16 of its 18 attempts from the arc.

The gut-wrenching loss extended UVA’s losing streak to four straight and sent the Cavaliers to 8-9 overall and 1-5 in the ACC, the program’s worst start since the end of the Dave Leitao era.

Interim coach Ron Sanchez, hoping for a turnaround win, drew a proverbial line in the sand in his pregame message to the Cavaliers, challenging them to play their best defense and for the bigs to grab eight rebounds each, focusing on the team’s two biggest shortcomings of late. What he didn’t count on was two of his leading scorers shooting blanks.

Isaac McKneely, one of the ACC’s most accurate and lethal 3-point shooters, came up empty from Bonusphere, missing all six attempts, ending his 33-game streak for triples. Backcourt mate Andrew Rohde was equally inept offensively, as each went 1 for 9 overall and Zippo for 6 from the arc.

“McKneely missed one or two wide-open ones (early on), and then our goal was just to try to make those [two] work and try to wear them down and have them take long shots, contested shots, hopefully with their legs a little tired from running off all those screens,” said SMU coach Andy Enfield. “They’re very hard to guard.”

Enfield said he had never been part of a game like this one, where his team shot so poorly from the perimeter until the final minute. The beauty of SMU’s high-powered offense (the Mustangs average 84.7 points per game) is that it’s an inside-out philosophy, emphasizing its big men to dominate the paint and if they are smothered, they kick the ball outside to open 3-point shooters.

Part of Sanchez’s strategy was double-teaming SMU’s center, 7-foot-1 Samet Yigitoglu, who had 16 points and missed only one shot in the first meeting in Dallas a few weeks ago, an SMU win.

Virginia’s frontcourt answered the bell, more than neutralizing Yigitoglu (10 points) and Kario Oquendo (6 points … he had 21 in the first meeting).

When the Mustangs kicked the ball outside to the arc, they struggled mightily until Wake Forest transfer Boopie Miller got hot in the final 10 seconds.

Virginia led 50-45 with 32 seconds to play before SMU’s BJ Edwards hit a 3 with 25 seconds to play, making it a one-possession game. Sanchez called his last timeout with 22.8 seconds remaining, perhaps not realizing he didn’t have another.

On the ensuing possession, freshman Ishran Sharma was fouled for a one-and-one and made both, giving UVA a 4-point lead (52-48) with 18.7 seconds to go.

Then came the Boopie Miller blitzkrieg. He nailed a 3-pointer with 9.1 seconds showing, cutting Virginia’s lead to 52-51. Sanchez had pulled Sharma for defense and put in senior Taine Murray, who was promptly fouled on the inbounds pass and went to the line for two shots with 7.4 seconds left.

Murray bricked both, SMU rebounded and Enfield called time just after the Mustangs advanced the ball past halfcourt with 4.1 seconds to play, trailing by a single point.

“The goal was to put our best defensive group on the floor, most experienced kind of defensive group that was playing,” Sanchez explained afterward. “Taine is definitely part of that group, combined with one of our better free-thow shooting groups, and Taine is definitely part of that group.”

True. Murray was 9 of 11 at the line before those two misses.

“Taine not making a free throw does not make him not be that,” Sanchez said. “That’s who he is, and if the situation was presented in front of me again, I would do the same exact thing, no question.”

Instead, after the SMU timeout, the Mustangs went back to Miller for the desperation heave, although he wasn’t their first option.

“It was supposed to go to Chuck (Harris),” Miller said after the game. “We was hitting him on a flare and then, if we didn’t have that, were supposed to hit Yohan (Traore, who had only 2 points in the game), our big, and then, I knew when we didn’t see anybody, I knew it was going to be my time.”

Indeed it was Miller Time, pun intended, and he delivered the dagger, hitting another 3-pointer with only four-tenths of a second remaining, making it virtually impossible for Virginia to pull out a miracle.

“We contested it,” Sanchez said. “I think Blake (Buchanan) maybe tripped a little (Buchanan later confirmed he tripped during his approach). But from an effort standpoint, I think we were there and it wasn’t a wide-open look.”

UVA trailed 27-25 at the half and instead of suffering a second-half implosion the way it had during its previous three losses, the Cavaliers prevented SMU from running away. The Mustangs (13-4, 4-2) couldn’t build more than an 8-point bulge in the second half before a 12-0 Virginia run over the final four minutes.

Still, the Cavaliers left the door open and blew the 5-point lead in the final 25 seconds.

Virginia got a huge boost from  Buchanan, easily his team’s player of the game, posting his first double-double of his career with 11 points, 15 rebounds (3 offensive boards) and a myriad of little things that don’t show up in the box score.

UVA also got a solid contribution from guard Dai Dai Ames, making his first start since New Year’s Eve and responding with 6 points and only 1 turnover in 28 minutes.

SMU outscored Virginia 36 to 24 in the paint and had a 39-30 advantage on the glass. The Cavaliers, who entered the game ranked No. 351 out of 355 Division I teams in offensive rebounds, managed 5 offensive boards.

UVA’s task doesn’t get any easier as it travels to Louisville on Saturday (Noon, ESPN2). The Cavaliers lost by 20 to the Cardinals at JPJ on Jan. 4.

Jon Golden Photo Gallery

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia fell to 8-9 overall, 1-5 ACC
• UVA’s 1-5 start in the ACC is its worst since starting 1-10 in 2007-08
• UVA has lost four straight games for the first time since 2016-17 (Virginia Tech, No. 12 Duke, No. 10 North Carolina and Miami)
• UVA used a 12-0 run to gain a 50-45 lead
• SMU led 27-25 at halftime
• UVA held its first opponent to fewer than 30 points in the first half for the first time since holding American to 28 on Dec. 22, 2024 (UVA’s last halftime lead at 32-28)
• UVA has trailed at the half in each of its six ACC contests
• Virginia is 7-3 at home this season
• UVA shot a season-low 15.4 percent from 3-point range (4 of 26)
• SMU outrebounded UVA 39-30

Series Notes

• Virginia is 1-2 against SMU in the series that began in 2013
• SMU defeated Virginia, 63-51, in the inaugural ACC meeting between the teams in Dallas on Dec. 7, 2024
• The Cavaliers squared off against the Mustangs in the semifinals of the Corpus Christi Challenge on Nov. 29, 2013

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Blake Buchanan (11), Ishan Sharma (10)
• Buchanan added a career-high 15 rebounds for his first career double-double
• Buchanan reached double figures for the third time (4 career)
• Isaac McKneely’s (0-6 3FG) 33-game 3-point streak ended
• Dai Dai Ames made his first start since Dec. 31 vs. NC State

Coming Thursday, a closer look at Blake Buchanan’s breakout night