Kihei’s late 3-pointer sinks Hokies, 56-53; ‘Hoos clinch double-bye

Virginia certainly made things interesting Wednesday in Blacksburg after letting a 15-point halftime lead slip away, but a Kihei Clark dagger 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds left lifted the Cavaliers to a 56-53 win over Virginia Tech.

With the win, Virginia clinches a top-four seed and double-bye in next month’s ACC Tournament in Greensboro.

UVA (20-7, 12-5 ACC) led by a dozen with less than 11 minutes to go, as the Hokies (15-13, 6-11) hung around after a dreadful first half in which they only scored 11 points.

Tech scored that many in just over two minutes during a critical second-half stretch that shrunk the lead to three, 40-37, with 8:18 to play.

The Hokies took their first lead of the night, 47-46, on a Hunter Cattoor 3-pointer with 4:49 on the clock, but Cavalier senior Mamadi Diakite answered with two of his game-high 19 points, setting up a thrilling, back-and-forth finish between the longtime rivals.

Diakite was whistled for goaltending the next trip down and then Tech freshman Landers Nolley II made a pair of free throws to give his team its biggest lead of the game, 51-48, with 3:31 showing.

Clark connected on a floater to cut it to two, then after a Hokie miss, Kody Stattmann found Casey Morsell in the corner in front of the Wahoo bench for a big-time triple to put Virginia back in front, 53-51, with 1:59 left.

Tyrece Radford came up short on Tech’s ensuing opportunity, but Clark was called for a travel as the clock approached the one-minute mark.

Cattoor fired away with the shot clock winding down and drew nothing but air as the ball landed out of bounds and back over to the ‘Hoos with 51 ticks to go.

Morsell had a chance to extend the lead but misfired from the same spot he had just hit from, and Tech rebounded and Coach Mike Young called for a timeout with 22 seconds left.

Radford wound up with the rock and drove to the hole with his left hand, tying the contest at 53-all with 11 seconds in regulation.

Clark calmly crossed the halfcourt stripe with the final seconds ticking away — almost as if he’d been in this kind of pressure situation before — before sliding to his left, stepping back behind the 3-point line to create space and swishing one home.

There’s ❄️ in @ClarkKihei’s veins!!
🔶⚔️🔷 #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/njbiyyvRW9

— Virginia Men’s Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) February 27, 2020

Clark let out a primal scream and a “Come on!” before receiving chest bumps from Morsell, Stattmann and Braxton Key, followed by a big bear hug from Diakite. The ‘Hoos walked back to set up the defense for Tech’s final attempt to tie, which was off the mark, and Virginia escaped with its fifth straight victory.

Diakite made 8 of 12 shots and had six rebounds and a pair of blocks to go with his 19 points, 13 of which he scored by halftime — two more than the Hokies. Key double-doubled with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Clark wound up with 10 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists (3 turnovers). UVA turned the ball over 11 times on the night.

The ‘Hoos shot 42.9 percent for the game (21 of 49), 28.6 percent from deep (6 for 21) and 8 of 10 from the stripe while owning the boards, 34-23, and completing the season sweep of the Hokies.

Nolley led Tech with 13 points off the bench, with no teammates joining him in double figures as the loss was the third in a row overall and eighth in the last nine games.

The Hokies got 9 points from P.J. Horne, all from downtown in the second half, with Radford and Jalen Cone offering 8 apiece. Tech shot 37.3 percent on the evening (19 for 51) and finished the game 33.3 percent (9 of 27) from 3-point land, after going just 1 for 13 in the first half from long distance and 5 of 24 (20.8 percent) overall.

Virginia, which has now won eight of its last nine, will host No. 7 Duke on Saturday at 6 p.m. (ESPN), as the third-place Blue Devils (23-5, 13-4) slipped to just one game ahead of the ‘Hoos with their double-overtime loss at Wake Forest Tuesday night.

Courtesy UVA Media Relations:

Team Notes

• The Cavaliers improved to 20-7, 12-5 ACC
• UVA has won 20 or more games in nine consecutive seasons
• UVA has a five-game winning streak
• UVA clinched a double bye for the ACC Tournament
• The Virginia-Virginia Tech game was part of the Commonwealth Clash presented by Virginia529, which is a head-to-head, points-based competition between the athletic teams of the Cavaliers and Hokies
• The UVA-VT game was worth a half point in the Clash and the Cavaliers lead this year’s Clash 6.5-3.5
• UVA led 26-11 at the half, fewest first-half points allowed by UVA since allowing seven points at Pitt on Feb. 24, 2018
• UVA owned a 34-23 rebounding advantage
• Virginia Tech grabbed its first lead of 47-46 at 4:30 of the second half
• UVA forced two shot clock violations

Series Notes

• Virginia is 95-56 all-time vs. Virginia Tech, including a 23-30 mark in Blacksburg, in the series that dates back to 1914-15
• UVA has a four-game winning streak in the series and three-game winning streak at Cassell Coliseum
• Virginia has its first four-game winning streak against Virginia Tech since winning seven straight from 2012-15
• Head coach Tony Bennett is 16-6 all-time vs. Virginia Tech

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Mamadi Diakite (19), Braxton Key (10), Kihei Clark (10)
• Clark made the game-winning 3-point shot with 2.6 seconds left in regulation
• Key had 10 points and 11 rebounds for his third career double-double
• Key had 18 points and 10 rebounds in the first meeting vs. Virginia Tech
• Key had his sixth 10+ rebound game of the season
• Huff (2 blocks) has 14 multi-block games
• Woldetensae extended his 3-point streak to nine games

Coaches’ Quotes

Tony Bennett:

On responding to Virginia Tech’s momentum: “We didn’t play very good second-half defense, and I want to credit Virginia Tech; they had a terrific second half. They hit tough shots and they really battled. That was part of it, but we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be. They took the lead and then Casey Morsell hit the 3 to put us up, then Kihei Clark making that play at the end, obviously. Braxton Key had some big rebounds, Mamadi Diakite made his free throws. Some guys made plays and I have said that repeatedly you have to make plays offensively, defensively well have you. I give credit to their second half, but I didn’t think we were as sharp as we needed to be. In the first half we had a good stretch of defense, but they were a little cold and didn’t make those shots, so we’ve got to keep working on that.” 

On Kihei Clark’s game-winning 3-pointer: “Sometimes we call timeouts, sometimes I decide not to, and thank goodness I didn’t. They [Virginia Tech] could’ve set it up, the score was tied, and sometimes it’s just better to let a guy get momentum and attack. Kihei backed the guy up and what a beautiful, beautiful 3. He’s a winner, and I’ve said that often. I kind of challenged him – I didn’t think he had the greatest second half with some of his defensive things, but he responded the right way with the way he played, and we needed every ounce of it.” 

On Virginia Tech’s second-half comeback: “You knew they were going to make a run here, and they started attacking and made some long 3s. A few of them were contested and on a few of them we had some breakdowns because they were running good actions. So, give credit to how they attacked and what they did, and we weren’t sharp. It was so long ago when we played them the first time, and we played one of our best games at our place. The 3-point shot is such a momentum swing, so they just started going. We could feel the crowd, and they sure wanted the bacon you could tell that, and when they got the lead this place got very loud. So, our guys responded well.” 

Mike Young:

On the game as an overall spectacle: “Hats off to Virginia and Coach [Tony] Bennett’s team. I absolutely take nothing away from their efforts, they played awfully hard as they always do. They played awfully well and sound. We shot 20% in the first half and we were miserable going down by 15 [points]. We had great shots in the first half and had the same shots in the second that we had in the first. We just happened to get the second half shots to go down. P.J. [Horne] made three 3-pointers. Jalen Cone had an awfully good half. Hunter Cattoor was really good. I thought we fought and competed our tails off defensively in the first half to limit them to 26 points. I was surprised that they shot 45% from the field, and [in the second half we had] just a better level of movement and ball movement, but at some point, you just have to get the ball in the basket. It puts too much pressure on your defense if you don’t. It’s a much easier game, it’s a better officiated game when the ball is going in the basket. There’s no consolation in getting your ears pinned back, but Virginia fought. The Hokies fought. That was a really good college basketball game, and I wish we could have gotten a better shake there at the end, wish we could have made a couple more plays.” 

On Virginia Tech’s second half outburst compared to their lackluster first half performance: “We were doing the exact same things in the second half that we were doing in the first half, but we thought that there were a couple actions that we could pick on and get some things freed up. I thought that we screened better in the second half, and that certainly helped our play. Jalen [Cone] got behind a couple screens and banged some shots. [Mamadi] Diakite is such a terrific defender and he did exactly what they wanted him to do, but P.J. [Horne] found the range and looked like P.J. again, so that was a welcome sight. There was nothing that we saw towards the later stages of the first half that we turned our attention to. We did exactly the same things in the second that we did in the first. We simply made shots.” 

On how the young team is handling a losing streak: “I don’t know. We’ve got Louisville next. There’s no point in getting into all of that. We’ve got to find ways to win. We don’t get into feelings around here. We just played a really good, hard basketball game against a really good opponent, and lost. We’ll take tomorrow off, out of necessity, and reload. We’ll get ready to go to Louisville and find a way to play a really good ball game and give ourselves a chance to win.” 

On Cattoor and Alleyne’s ability to stifle Woldetensae: “I thought they were exceptional. He is playing very good basketball for them. I watched them play Louisville and he banged six 3s through the course of the game, and he was exceptional. He plays with great gamesmanship and reads screens very well; we wanted to chase him off that. We had Hunter [Cattoor] and Nahiem [Alleyne], two puppies, guarding him and I thought they did a great job. I thought our team throughout the course of the game did a very nice job.” 

On new starting lineup: “John Ojiako had been playing well. I’m trying to get him to 21 or 22 minutes because I feel that good about his direction as a player, and I thought Isaiah Wilkins helped our team. He stuck it up in there and played a good basketball game against Duke. Nothing more than that. I’ve always been a lot more concerned with who finishes than who starts. Typically, who finishes is who helps us win. I thought the lineup we went with there in the late second half did just.”