Huff’s 10 blocks, near-triple-double help UVA upset No. 7 Duke, 52-50

Virginia junior forward Jay Huff delivered a memorable all-around performance, finishing just one rebound shy of what would’ve been the program’s fourth triple-double and registering the key stop on Duke’s Vernon Carey Jr. on the next-to-last possession to help the Cavaliers knock off the seventh-ranked Blue Devils, 52-50.

Huff wound up with a team-high 15 points, 10 — count ‘em — 10 blocks and nine rebounds on 7-of-9 shooting, including a couple of crowd-pleasing dunks that kept the John Paul Jones Arena crowd loud and intense.

UVA (21-7, 13-5 ACC) won its sixth straight game and pulled even with Duke (23-6, 13-5) in the conference standings with a week to go, and the Wahoos now own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Devils, should the teams finish with the same record. UVA sits just a game back of first-place Florida State and Louisville (both 14-4 in conference play) with two games to go.

“We knew what this game meant,” said UVA senior forward Braxton Key. “We saw that Florida State lost earlier [at Clemson] and we’re trying to race to first place and that’s the goal at the end of the day.”

The talented freshman Carey had it working early in the second half, giving the Devils their largest lead of the night, 35-28, with just under 15 minutes to play, but UVA got a 3-pointer from Mamadi Diakite before the first of two second-half Duke shot-clock violations at the 10:20 mark, then a Key drive tied it up with 9:49 to go, 39-39.

Tre Jones put the visitors back in front, 42-39, with one of his three 3-pointers on the night with 9:04 on the clock, and from that point on, the game featured a tie and seven lead changes (there were 14 lead changes and five ties throughout the contest).

Jones sank another crucial 3-pointer as the clock went under three minutes to make it a 48-47 Duke lead, but Key answered right back with a dunk off a nice Kihei Clark assist.

Leading by one with 1:27 to go, Coach Tony Bennett called for a timeout, and Clark’s ensuing shot attempt was swatted away by Carey, and Mike Krzyzewski called a timeout of his own to draw something up with 1:02 left. Out of the break, Jones drove and let one fly against Diakite, who thought he had a clean block but was whistled for goal tending with 58.8 seconds to go, as the call was reviewed and upheld.

Diakite scored on Virginia’s next trip down, hitting the go-ahead bucket over Duke freshman defender Wendell Moore Jr., and giving the ‘Hoos a 51-50 edge with 39.6 seconds to play.

“I knew that the team needed that bucket and it was a critical moment, so I just did what I had to do,” said Diakite, who will be playing in his final home game in a week from now.

With 15 seconds left, Virginia was able to force a held ball in the lane with Duke looking to go back on top, and Key was quickly fouled on the ensuing inbound pass with 14.7 to go. The senior forward, a 60-percent foul shooter who was handling the rock at times due to heavy defensive pressure on Clark, missed the front end of the one-and-one opportunity and Carey got the board, his 10th of the game, and everyone inside JPJ was on the edge of their seats for the exciting finish with time ticking away.

Carey briefly got free under the hoop but was immediately surrounded by Wahoo defenders Huff, Diakite and Tomas Woldetensae.

Playing with four fouls, Huff risked fouling out if his timing was off on his block attempt.

“Well, with four seconds left, I wasn’t thinking too much about a fifth foul,” admitted the 7-footer. “I was just trying to time it and hopefully went up when I jumped. I think I jumped a little early, actually, but it just worked out well.”

Huff denied Carey’s attempt, secured the rock and was then fouled by Carey, his fifth and final foul. Huff let out a yell while clinching his fists and then went down and split a pair of free throws on the other end to make it a two-point affair with 3.7 ticks left, and Duke had to go the length of the floor after calling its final timeout.

Jones caught the inbound pass just shy of halfcourt, took a couple of dribbles and let one go from beyond the arc over Clark to potentially win it, but the ball bounced off the rim and the Cavaliers began to celebrate their third home win over a top-10 team this season.

HOOS WIN!!!

That’s it. That’s the tweet.

🔶⚔️🔷 #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/kZ1J16xYUm

— Virginia Men’s Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) March 1, 2020

Huff’s 10 blocks tie the great Ralph Sampson for second in school history for a single game, as Sampson got 10 against Old Dominion on Dec. 29, 1979, a week after setting the school record of 12 against Army. Chris Alexander and Jason Clark are the only other two Wahoos not named Sampson with 8 blocks in a game. UVA recorded 13 blocks for the game.

Key and Diakite each added 14 points, with Key grabbing 8 rebounds and blocking a pair of shots of his own. Diakite had 5 rebounds, a block and a steal. Clark chipped in with 7 points and 5 assists on a night when he struggled with his shot (2 for 9 from the floor). As a team, the ‘Hoos went 21 for 50 (42 percent) and 3 of 10 from 3-point range, claiming the rebounding battle by five, 38-33. The Cavaliers outscored the Devils in the paint, 30-24, and scored 10 points off of 10 Duke turnovers, while giving it away 15 times themselves.

Carey and Jones each finished with a game-high 17 points for Duke. Charlottesville’s own Javin DeLaurier (St. Anne’s-Belfield graduate) was the team’s next-highest scorer with only six points. Cassius Stanley, Moore and Matthew Hurt combined for just 6 points on 2-for-16 shooting. The Devils finished the game shooting 30.5 percent (18 of 59) and 23.5 percent from downtown (4 of 17).

“I’ve coached a lot of games,” said Krzyzewski, the all-time Division I wins leader with 1,154 over his legendary 45-year Hall of Fame career. “This is a really good basketball game. This was not a good basketball game, this was a really good basketball game where every kid out there competed. And it came down to a play, one way or the other, and as you go forward, you would think that you will be in similar games and hopefully you make that one play more and advance. Basketball’s not about getting bowl-eligible.”

Virginia plays at Miami Wednesday night at 9 p.m. before hosting Louisville for Senior Day next Saturday.

Courtesy UVA Media Relations:

Team Notes

• The Cavaliers improved to 21-7, 13-5 ACC
• UVA held Duke to 50 points, lowest for the Blue Devils in the series since scoring 47 on Jan. 31, 1981
• Duke finished the game shooting 30.5% from the field, its worst FG percentage in a game since Dec. 19, 2015 against Utah (29.9%)
• Duke’s 50 points scored are tied for its fewest in a game in the last 10 seasons (50 vs Miami on Feb. 25, 2017)
• UVA has won 21 or more games in eight consecutive seasons
• UVA has a six-game winning streak
• The game was tied 25-25 at halftime
• UVA is 3-2 against ranked opponents in 2019-20 (2-2 vs top-5 foes and all five are top-10 foes).
• UVA is 44-36 against ranked opponents in the Bennett era
• UVA had a season-high 13 blocked shots

Series Notes

• UVA is 52-121 all-time vs. Duke, including a 35-40 record in Charlottesville
• Four of the last six meetings have been decided by two points or less
• Head coach Tony Bennett is 4-11 all-time against Duke at UVA

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Jay Huff (15), Braxton Key (14), Mamadi Diakite (14)
• Huff had a career-high 10 blocks, most at UVA since Ralph Sampson blocked 10 vs. Old Dominion on Dec. 29, 1979
• The 10 blocks tied for second in UVA single-game history
• Huff’s 10 blocks are the most by an ACC player since NC State’s Beejay Anya also had 10 on Nov. 20, 2014
• Huff joins Tyrelle Blair (BC) and Shelden Williams (DUKE) as the only players with 10 blocks in an ACC conference game over the last 20 seasons
• Huff is the first player in the last 20 seasons with 10 blocks in a game against an AP Top-10 team
• Huff’s 10 blocks are tied for the most by any Division I player in a game this season.
• Huff is the second player to ever have 10 blocks in a game against Duke, joining Tree Rollins (Clemson) on Feb. 3, 1977 (he had exactly 10)
• Huff moved past Chris Alexander into seventh on UVA’s single-season blocks list (59)
• Huff has 15 multi-block games
• Huff had his fourth double-double with 15 points and 10 blocks
• Kihei Clark matched a career high with three steals
• Key had a career-high six turnovers