By Jerry Ratcliffe
During Jai Lucas’ film scouting of Virginia’s basketball team, one thing jumped through the screen about one of the Cavaliers’ players.
“I was telling the guys before the game, when we were going through [UVA’s] personnel, Chance Mallory is kind of their swagger, he’s kind of their personality,” Miami’s Lucas said after the two ACC heavyweights clashed Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville.
With the game on the line, Virginia’s phenomenal freshman’s swagger exploded in the face of the upset-minded Hurricanes as Mallory iced the win with a heady play that led to three game-winning free throws.
UVA 86, Miami 83, in a showdown that had a March Madness kind of feel to it.
No sooner had Miami’s Malik Reneau’s layup knotted the game at 83-all with only 7 seconds to play, Mallory didn’t hesitate. The 5-foot-10 guard rocketed down the floor and when a defender approached, the freshman made a senior-like decision, rising for a jump shot that drew a crucial foul.
After a review to confirm a shooting foul, Mallory went to the free-throw line for three foul shots and only 3.6 seconds showing on the John Paul Jones Arena play clock. He made all 3.
Swagger and a dagger.
Virginia led 86-83. Miami had a last gasp, inbounding the ball to halfcourt, calling for a timeout with 3.2 seconds to go, and setting up a potential winning shot. Thijs De Ridder, UVA’s other er, uh, freshman, had other plans.
De Ridder intercepted the Hurricanes’ inbounds pass and tossed the ball toward JPJ’s rafters (for a complete blow-by-blow game story, box score, notebook, video highlights, ACC standings, UVA’s schedule and Saturday’s game results, see Scott Ratcliffe’s related story on this site).
Lucas said he was trying to call a timeout after Reneau’s game-tying basket, but couldn’t get to a ref in time. Meanwhile, Mallory was off and running.
“I wasn’t really planning on going before [Miami] could stop the game,” Mallory said afterward. “I was just trying to get out as fast and then just to get a chance to get a shot up and maybe get an offensive rebound, which is our strength.”
When he started to elevate for the shot, what was going through the freshman’s mind?
“I saw [Tre Donaldson’s] hand was like out and down, and, I mean, obviously the refs were calling that on me (hypothetically-speaking), so I knew they had to call it at that point,” Mallory said of the whistle. “So, yeah, definitely just saw him there, so I tried to draw the foul. I thought I was going to make [the 3-pointer] at the time.”
Mallory, a 77-percent free-throw shooter on the season, was confident going to the free-throw stripe with the game on the line. So was teammate Jacari White.
“I knew he was gonna knock them down,” said White, who delivered his own dramatic impact late in the contest. “Chance has been tested all year, especially working on [free throws] in practice, so I just had full faith.”
Mallory was 7 for 7 at the free-throw line in the game, one of six Wahoos in double figures with his 12 points, plus team-leading 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 turnovers.
Prior to Mallory’s heroics, White made a huge play with 1:19 to go. With Virginia leading 80-79, White drilled his fifth 3-pointer of the game, causing Lucas to call a timeout.
While Lucas called Mallory, Virginia’s swagger, he said both Mallory and White were kind of the personality of the Cavaliers.
“When they come in the game, it’s a different level of pop that comes with them,” the Miami coach said. “Both of them impacted the game and both of them hit big shots.
“The one White hit on the break transition, I know as a coach, you’re like, ‘No, no, no,’ but I’m like, ‘No, no, no,’ because I knew it was going in.”
White, who has returned to his early-season form with his long-range shooting ability, finished with a team-high 17 points as he made 6 of 9 shots, 5 of 8 from the arc.
Virginia is a different team when White launches his heat-seeking missiles with accuracy.
While his last-minute 3 might not have been the shot Ryan Odom would have preferred under the circumstances, White didn’t blink under pressure.
“In times like that, you can’t really think about what if I miss, so it’s kind of like I just went for it,” White smiled.
Asked if he would have had the confidence to take that shot had he not already made 4 of 7 attempts from the arc in the game, White candidly replied, “No.”
Odom didn’t reveal whether or not he might have been mumbling, “No, no, no,” under his breath, but did celebrate the difference-making shot.
“A lot of it is just when the ball is going in the basket, Jacari fires that first one and sees one go in, then his feet start popping and he’s moving to find shots and there’s just an energy, there’s a confidence with him,” Odom said.
Swagger with a dagger. What more could a coach ask for?
