Beekman fuels Virginia’s pressure-packed win at BC

By Jerry Ratcliffe

The pressure was immense on Virginia’s basketball team on its late-night trip to Boston on Wednesday. Bracketologists predicted a UVA loss would knock the Cavaliers out of next month’s NCAA Tournament. Fans were contemplating jumping off bridges.

Yes, the pressure was real, so real that coach Tony Bennett got a special text of wisdom from his father back in Wisconsin.

Boosted by an overpowering performance by point guard Reece Beekman — 18 points, 8 assists, all seemingly at critical junctures — and its long-range bombers rediscovering their shooting touch, Virginia grinded out its 21st win of the season, a 72-68 victory over host Boston College (for a complete, blow-by-blow account of the game with highlights, box score and notes, click here).

Having lost three of its last four games due chiefly to an anemic offense that hadn’t reached 50 points in its last three games, the Cavaliers were slipping from grace and desperately needed to stop the bleeding. Their 3-point shooters had been ineffective, which allowed opposing defenses to choke off the driving lanes from the creative Beekman.

Bennett made some adjustments and shuffled his starting lineup, replacing Andrew Rohde with Jake Groves in order to put another scorer on the floor. Defenses weren’t respecting Rohde (30 percent field goal) and daring him to shoot. Groves, a stronger threat from 3-point range and a 48.7-percent shooter from the field, at least was an extra threat.

In addition, Bennett had 3-point shooter Isaac McKneely and Groves working in practice on “quick-hitters,” a faster-developing, quick-release shot from behind the arc before defenses could get to them. During the last three games, UVA had managed to make only eight triples, which was pulling the plug on the Cavaliers offense.

BC, not blessed with as talented defenders as some of Virginia’s most recent opponents, couldn’t apply the same pressure to the perimeter, which allowed McKneely & Co. to go bombs-away. Virginia made eight 3’s, as many as in the last three games combined, and the Wahoos needed every one of them to improve to 21-8, 12-6.

The win allowed the Cavaliers to strengthen their grip on third place in the ACC ahead of Clemson and Wake Forest, and kept them in the NCAA conversation.

While UVA’s shooters were firing at will, Beekman unleashed his inner beast in leading the way. Beekman was relentlessly attacking the Eagles, driving the lane, making shots and finding open teammates for easy buckets in an outstanding performance.

Ryan Dunn and Blake Buchanan were effective in the paint with Dunn taking Bennett’s pre-game advice of being an “elite rebounder” to heart, pulling down a career-high 13, despite sitting out a nine-minute stretch in the second half. Bennett sensed it was time to get another potential scorer on the floor during that span and inserted Rohde, who delivered with a huge 3-pointer (63-55, 3:42 to play), and made some smart passes.

Still, with all that going for Virginia, it boiled down to the free-throw line in the final two minutes, when Beekman made a pair, then McKneely, who is almost automatic, icing the win with two free throws with 25 seconds to play.

The whole idea, Bennett said, was to reverse the pressure, advice from his dad, respected, longtime coach Dick Bennett, who sent him an important text leading up to the game.

“I can’t remember it verbatim, but he just said, ‘Don’t put too much pressure on this game, but to put pressure into this game in terms of your effort and execution … have that be the intensity. You can sometimes put too much pressure on the outcome,’” Bennett related.

In yet another extremely physical game, Virginia delivered the TKO.

Beekman was almost unstoppable with another jaw-dropping performance. The senior guard’s recognition of a mismatch with BC big man Quinten Post allowed Beekman to drive the lane with a spin move that froze Post and allowed the Cavalier to soar for an easy bucket and a 66-60 lead with 2:28 to play. 

Moments earlier, Beekman drove under the basket, spotted Groves wide open in the left corner and lasered a pass to the shooter for a triple and a 57-51 lead. He followed with a sharp entry pass to Buchanan down low, which allowed the big man to draw a foul. If that wasn’t enough, with 3:42 to play, he zipped a cross-court pass to a wide-open Rohde for the aforementioned big 3-pointer.

“In close college basketball games, you’ve got to make plays,” Bennett said after the game, admiring his captain. “Reece is one of the more underrated guards in the country. He’s good. Some of those things he did tonight against that pressure, are next-level things.”