Virginia dodges upset threat by Georgia Tech; Hauser & Huff put up 40

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Sometimes you’ve just got to let the big dogs eat, and that’s exactly what Tony Bennett did when it came to crunch time against Georgia Tech late in Saturday night’s game at John Paul Jones Arena.

The Yellow Jackets had led for most of the game and built a 54-45 advantage with 9:43 to play.

That’s when Virginia’s big dogs devoured everything in site as the Cavaliers outscored Tech 19-8 down the stretch for a 64-62 win, UVA’s seventh in a row over the Jackets and 15th in the last 17 meetings.

Virginia’s two seniors, Sam Hauser and Jay Huff, were spectacular as they combined for 40 points to keep the Cavaliers undefeated in ACC play at 6-0 and 10-2 overall.

After the time out with 9:43 to go, Hauser scored back-to-back 3-pointers as he and Huff posted 15 of UVA’s final 19 points. Talk about clutch, the two made 9 of 11 shots in the second half.

Still, the game was on the line, knotted at 62-all with only 86 seconds to play, when the smallest player on the court made the eventual winning basket. Five-foot-nine Kihei Clark, who had not had one of his better outings of the season, drilled a short jumper in the lane for the 64-62 lead at the 1:09 mark.

It require more heroics from the Cavaliers to pull this one out.

Huff, who ranks among the nation’s top 20 shotblockers, swatted away five Yellow Jacket shots on the night, none bigger than with 41 seconds left when he rejected Tech’s Moses Wright. Clark missed a 3-point attempt with nine seconds to play, still leaving the game up for grabs.

Tech’s Michael Devoe, who was 1 for 8 shooting on the night, missed a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer and the Cavaliers dodged the upset bullet from an underrated Yellow Jackets squad, now 7-4 overall, 3-2 in the ACC.

“What I saw down the stretch is, I thought our on-ball defense really stepped up,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Whether it was Reece (Beekman), Kihei (Clark) or Casey (Morsell), and then I thought Jay (Huff) did a heck of a job.

“It was that kind of buckling down and saying we’re going to be hard to get by and score against, and I thought those guys in particular and Sam (Hauser) played good position defense, too.”

Virginia’s defense, tested all night by Georgia Tech’s eye-popping quickness, was solid in the home stretch as the Yellow Jackets missed 8 of their final 10 shots.

As good as the Cavaliers’ offense was when it counted most, the defense was what won the game. They needed stops and they got ‘em.

“We had to step up and make plays on both ends,” Bennett said. “Every possession mattered and that’s why we were a little foolish at times with some self-inflicted wounds, so to speak, with some of our careless turnovers.

“[Georgia Tech] has very quick hands. I mean they scored 25 percent of their points off of their steals. (Jose) Alvarado has some of the quickest hands. He had six steals and they had eight steals (as a team). We like to use the words ‘ball-strong’ and I thought Kihei took better care of the ball in the second half.”

Alvarado broke former Jackets guard Kenny Anderson’s school record for most steals in a game this season with nine, a lofty number in college basketball, and was giving the Cavaliers fits with his quickness on both ends of the floor. He finished with a team-high 20 points, 8 assists, 2 turnovers and the 6 steals.

Clark, who was challenged by Bennett at halftime, had three turnovers at halftime, only two assists and had missed all three attempted shots. He finished with no turnovers in the second half, eight assists for the game, and the winning basket (the only shot he made in 10 attempts), and never stepped off the floor after the break.

“Kihei’s a competitor and you can see that in him,” Hauser said after the game. “Staying aggressive and taking a big shot like that shows his character, and that he just wants to win and he’s going to do whatever it takes and we trust him in that situation.”

Hauser, who hit three 3-pointers in those final 10 minutes, finished 22 points (9 of 12 FG, 4 of 5 from 3-point range), said he knew it was time to turn it up a notch after that (9:43) time out.

“Well, I mean you can’t just wait around in a game like that, especially when you’re down,” Hauser said. “You’ve got to flip the switch and turn in on, and I felt like me and Jay got more aggressive. Whether we were making the shot or someone else, our aggressiveness opened up a loty of things.”

One of the biggest shots was Huff’s jumper from just outside the paint on an inbounds pass that gave UVA a 62-59 lead with 2:01 to play. While Tech answered to knot the game at 62-all with 1:26 to go, Huff’s basket was crucial.

“It wasn’t exactly drawn up like that, but I’m kind of the last option if we need to get the ball in,” Huff revealed.

The original plan was to inbounds the ball to Hauser in the corner.

“It ended up where I had to just kind of get it,” Huff said. “I shoot that shot in practice, but it’s definitely not my specialty.”

On this night, the Cavaliers showed they can win a close game down the stretch after cruising to most of their ACC wins to this point.

In two days, Virginia faces another challenge when Syracuse comes to town. The big dogs will be waiting.

Team Notes

• No. 13 Virginia (10-2, 6-0) has a six-game winning streak and has started 6-0 in the ACC for the first time since starting 12-0 in 2017-18
• UVA has a 14-game league winning streak dating back to 2019-20
• UVA’s first points came on a Sam Hauser layup at 15:55 of the first half
• Hauser’s layup ignited a 9-0 Virginia run
• UVA trailed at the half (36-32) for the third time this season (1-1)
• Georgia Tech held its largest lead of 11 at 49-38 before UVA outscored the Yellow Jackets 26-13 to gain the win

Series Notes

• Virginia is 44-40 all-time vs. Georgia Tech, including a 25-11 record in Charlottesville, in the series that dates back to 1947-48
• The Cavaliers have a seven-game winning streak in the series
• Virginia is 15-2 in its last 17 games against Georgia Tech, including a 14-2 mark under head coach Tony Bennett
• UVA’s has an eight-game home winning streak vs. Georgia Tech

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Sam Hauser (22), Jay Huff (18)
• Huff matched a season high with 18 points
• Hauser had a season-high 22 points on 9 of 12 shooting (4 of 5 from 3-point range)
• Hauser matched a season high with four 3-pointers
• Huff (5 blocks) moved into a tie for fifth with Travis Watson on UVA’s career blocks list with 130
• Huff has 36 multi-block games (9 this season)
• Kihei Clark handed out a season-high eight assists
• Casey Morsell had nine of UVA’s 13 bench points