Cavaliers outlast Louisville, 64-52, behind big night from Clark

By Scott Ratcliffe

Virginia came out scorching, locked down defensively and held on down the stretch for a wire-to-wire 64-52 ACC win over Louisville Monday night.

Jumpstarted by senior guard Kihei Clark, who scored nine of his game-high 15 points in the first half, the Cavaliers (12-8, 6-4 ACC) won for the 13th time in 15 conference meetings — including all eight at John Paul Jones Arena — against the Cardinals (11-9, 5-5), who joined the league in 2014.

Senior forward Jayden Gardner added 14 points and 5 rebounds, as the Wahoos led by as many as 19 points in the opening stanza. Francisco Caffaro had another big game as well, finishing with 9 points and a game-high 7 rebounds.

The Cardinals trailed by double digits for the majority of the first half, but trimmed the UVA lead to six in the opening minutes of the second on a Jarrod West 3-pointer with 14:34 to play.

Malik Williams’ basket down low drew Louisville within four points as the game went under 12 minutes, but Kadin Shedrick and Gardner answered with consecutive buckets to restore a little breathing room and give the Hoos a 49-41 advantage.

West sank his fourth 3-ball of the night with 5:30 to go, cutting the UVA lead back down to five, and then had a jumper attempt rattle out a minute later that would’ve made it a one-possession affair, but Shedrick’s monster jam on the other end pushed the lead back to seven, 54-47, by the four-minute mark.

Out of the final media timeout, Gardner ooped one up for Shedrick to the delight of the JPJ crowd, then buried his own jumper moments later, and the Cardinals ran out of gas, dropping their fifth contest of the last six. Clark’s deep triple with 35 ticks left was the final dagger.

On the night, Virginia made 24 of 51 from the field (47 percent) and 5 of 16 from beyond the arc (31 percent), winning the rebound category convincingly, 37-26. The Hoos recorded 9 offensive boards, which led to 7 second-chance points, and were consistent from the charity stripe, sinking 11 of their 14 free throws (79 percent).

Second-year guard Reece Beekman scored just two points, but dished out a career-high 11 assists — the most by any ACC player this season — to go along with his 7 rebounds, 2 steals and a block. Armaan Franklin added 10 points and a pair of steals, while Shedrick posted 11 points, 6 boards and 3 blocks. It was just the second time this season that UVA had four players with double figures scoring (Syracuse).

Louisville was held to 38-percent shooting (21 of 56), including 9 of 28 from long distance (32 percent). West led the Cards with 14 points off the bench, while Matt Cross added 11 and Williams had 10.

FIRST HALF

Clark and Gardner got things going offensively, combining for nine of the team’s first 11 points as the Hoos built an eight-point lead by the first media timeout.

Clark nailed a corner triple before scoring on a pump-fake and a jumper, then delivered a no-look assist to Gardner, who sank back-to-back jumpers to give the Cavaliers some early confidence.

Later, Clark spun around his defender and banked one in, then fed Caffaro for two, stretching the UVA lead to 19-5 with 12:17 remaining in the half, as Louisville missed 12 of its first 15 shots (including nine of the first 10 from downtown), prompting a Chris Mack timeout.

Conversely, Virginia connected on eight of its first 12 shots and led by 17 as a Kody Stattmann 3-pointer bounced in to make it 25-8 as the clock went under eight minutes. The Wahoo defense was solid, scoring 10 first-half points off of Louisville turnovers.

The Cardinals eventually broke out of their cold spell, but couldn’t get much closer on the scoreboard as the teams traded buckets over the next few minutes. A West 3-pointer capped a late 7-0 Louisville spurt to get his team back within 10, but Beekman finished the half with a strong drive to the hole in the closing seconds and UVA led by a dozen, 35-23, at the break, despite misfiring on 10 of its last 14 attempts from the field.

Box Score

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia improved to 12-8, 6-4 ACC
• UVA is 7-4 at John Paul Jones Arena
• UVA forced one shot-clock violation (22 in 2021-22)
• UVA went on a 17-2 run to gain a 22-5 lead
• UVA led 35-23 at halftime
• UVA improved to 9-1 when leading at the half
• UVA outrebounded Louisville 37-26
• UVA had 20 assists on its 24 made field goals

Series Notes

• Virginia is 18-5 all-time vs. Louisville in a series that began in 1923-24
• UVA has a three-game winning streak vs. Louisville and has won 12 of the last 13 meetings
• UVA is 12-2 vs. the Cardinals in ACC action
• UVA has held Louisville to 59 or fewer points in 11 of 15 contests since the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014-15
• Tony Bennett is 13-2 vs. Louisville as head coach at Virginia

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Kihei Clark (15), Jayden Gardner (14), Kadin Shedrick (11), Armaan Franklin (10)
• Gardner reached double figures for the 15th time (89th career)
• Clark reached double figures for the ninth time (43rd career)
• Shedrick reached double figures for the fifth time (7th career)
• Franklin reached double figures for the 14th time (28th career)
• Reece Beekman had a career-high 11 assists
• The 11 assists by Beekman are the most by any ACC player this season
• It’s also the first double-figure assist game in conference play this year (high was 9)
• Clark (5 assists) moved past Harold Deane into seventh on UVA’s all-time assist list with 469
• ACC steals leader Beekman had two steals
• Beekman has a 10-game steal streak
• Kadin Shedrick (3 blocks) had his 16th multi-block game
• Shedrick has a nine-game block streak
• Shedrick has at least one block in 19 of 20 games
• Shedrick has three or more blocks in 11 games
• Shedrick’s 54 blocks are tied for ninth with Chris Alexander on UVA’s single-season blocks list

UP NEXT

Virginia closes out the month of January in South Bend Saturday, tipping off against Notre Dame at 6 p.m. on ACC Network.