Offense your cup of tea? Don’t tell that to defensive-minded, first-to-50 Virginia

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia’s DNA is composed of smothering defense, a natural genetic trait with Tony Bennett’s roots linked to his father’s creation of the “Pack Line” defense. The Bennett’s are disciples of defense-first.

That old tenet served Virginia well during an unsightly rock fight on the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues late Wednesday night in Brooklyn in yet another “first-to-50” outcome in the ACC Tournament. Purists called it basketball. Bennett described it as a knuckle-buster.

Whatever adjective you prefer, the Cavaliers relied heavily on defense to continue their dominance over Louisville in a 51-50 heartstopper (see related game story, game notes, boxscore and tourney schedule). UVA, fighting for its postseason life, got its 19th win in a three-game sweep of the Cardinals, who lost 15 of their last 17 games in a brutal finish.

For those who like scoreboards sent into offensive gyrations, this game would not have suited their palate.

In a game where Virginia missed 16 of its first 18 shots and had only four points in the first 11 minutes and 23 seconds of the game, the Cavaliers became the first team to win an ACC Tournament game without making a 3-point shot (0 for 6) since the NCAA incorporated the triple in 1986.

Didn’t matter, because UVA’s defense was so stifling that Louisville couldn’t score either. Advantage, Cavaliers, although Louisville coach Mike Pegues felt his team’s defense wasn’t too shabby either.

“I thought we executed our game plan to a tee,” Pegues said. “If you ever want to know how you go about guarding Virginia’s offense, their blocker-mover, you watch this game and take the example.”

With offense barely a rumor, the Cavaliers were right at home, dragging this game across the finish line. It was 24-20 at the half, a pace that’s right in Virginia’s wheelhouse.

“I had a feeling it would be a first-to-50 game,” Pegues said afterward. “They got there a few seconds before we did.”

Attribute that factoid to Virginia’s key defensive plays down the homestretch.

After the two teams spent much of the second half leapfrogging one another, the Cavaliers were clinging to a 43-42 lead with 4:12 to play when their pitbullish guard Kihei Clark drew a charging foul on Louisville’s Mason Faulkner.

After a timeout, UVA’s leading scorer Jayden Gardner scored from the paint, then added his almost automatic mid-range jumper for a 47-45 lead with 87 seconds to play.

Following another time out, Reece Beekman expanded that lead to 49-45 on an explosive drive to the basket, making it a two possession game with 40 seconds on the clock.

Beekman, arguably the best defensive player in the league, reminded everyone why on the next Louisville possession when he was in Noah Locke’s grill so closely that Locke traveled.

Had it not been for those two defensive gems, Virginia may not have pulled off the hat trick against the Cardinals, whose last bucket came with one-tenth of a second to play.

“You’ve got to play true to who you are and just find ways, and that’s where our defense hangs us in there and you find some tough baskets,” Bennett said postgame.

“To me it was beautiful and I say that because, yeah, we were struggling offensively, but to me it’s beautiful when a team finds a way. They guard hard, they just do tough things.”

Even though Bennett didn’t really want to look at the box score to see the poor offensive numbers, he wasn’t about to apologize for the way Virginia plays. We’ve been down that road before, remember?

A few years back, en route to the 2019 national championship, pundits said UVA’s deliberate style and suffocating defense was ruining college basketball.

“I want our guys, when they have shots, to take them,” Bennett said after UVA’s 15th win in the last 17 games against the Cardinals. “Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t. But when you know you’re struggling in certain areas, do you have the wherewithal and the identity to say, ‘We’re going to rely on stops and squeeze out a few points here and there, and then try to win a game.’ I’d take that win over an 85-82 loss.”

Amen, said the Virginia fan base, which is accustomed to edge-of-their-seats, heart-palpitating thriller dillers, even if shots aren’t falling.

For the record, Louisville shot 35.7 percent (20 for 56) and hit only 5 of 22 attempts from behind the arc. With Beekman moving to defend whatever Cardinal was hot at the time, most of his focus was on Locke, who finished 3-of-10 for 8 points.

“The game comes down to making plays and there’s some good individual defensive plays,” Bennett said, directing his thoughts to Clark and Beekman.

“Kihei was heating up the ball, Reece was all over [Locke] and we just said make them shoot tough shots because Noah Locke can get going. I’m sure [Locke] wishes he had that play back, but Reece was right there and we always talk about contest the shot and bother it.

“We work on that and we knew we had to get it done with our defense.”

Beekman said the team knew it had to get stops, particularly down the stretch, with a chance for a rematch with North Carolina in tonight’s quarterfinals on the line.

“That was kind of our mindset the whole game,” Beekman said. “So coming down the stretch, it was going back and forth and at the end of the day, we knew we had to get a couple of stops to win the game. At the end, that’s what we did.”

The 19th win kept Virginia on the NCAA bubble, and after losing to UNC by 20 in the first meeting back in early January, the Cavaliers want to show the rest of the basketball world that was an anomaly.

Critics believe an upset over the Tar Heels just might push UVA through the bubble and into the NCAA field.

It might require another knuckle-buster.