Virginia was just good enough to avoid hungry Pitt’s upset bid
Posted on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, 7:56 pm
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Tony joins legendary coaches with 9th straight winning ACC season
By Jerry Ratcliffe
File photo by Jon Golden
Virginia’s visit to Pittsburgh on Saturday was one of those games that coaches dread. Late season, on the road against an opponent that had a three-game losing streak, a stretch in which it had been bombed by more experienced teams.
Call it what you will, a trap game, whatever adjective you choose. It is the kind of game where the favored team can easily get beaten. Ask Louisville, which dropped back-to-back games to Clemson and Georgia Tech last week, both on the road. Ask Duke, which was obliterated on the road at NC State.
On Saturday, Virginia was “just good enough,” a term Tony Bennett likes to use in close contests. The Wahoos survived the upset threat after cruising along and taking control of the game to having to ward off a potential game-tying scenario for the Panthers at the end.
That’s when Pitt had a chance for a last-second 3-pointer that would have sent the game into overtime had Ryan Murphy made the shot, and if he had gotten it off in time. The Panthers bungled the ending and Murphy didn’t get the ball out of his hands before the buzzer sounded as Virginia held on for a 59-56 win.
“We had our moments and they had their moments,” said Pitt’s Xavier Johnson. “Of course, they had more moments.”
That’s all Bennett could ask for — more moments in this crazy ACC season when so many games come down to which team had the most moments.
“It still comes down to home or away, are you playing good basketball, just doing the little things well,” Bennett said after the game.
The win was Virginia’s fourth in a row, seven of the last eight, and puts the Cavaliers at 19-7 overall and 11-5 in the ACC. Coupled with NC State’s home loss to Florida State, the Cavaliers now own a three-game lead over the Wolfpack, Syracuse and Clemson (all 8-8) with four games to play in a battle for the league’s fourth seed in the ACC Tournament. That’s important because the top four teams at the end of the regular season gain double-byes in the tournament.
State, by the way, has to play rivals North Carolina and Duke on the road, and host Pitt and Wake to end the regular season. UVA hosts Duke and Louisville, and faces Virginia Tech and Miami on the road.
The Cavaliers, who went through a rough patch in January when they dropped four out of five close games, are now thriving in those situations.
“We’re just figuring out ways to win, whether it’s at home or on the road,” said sophomore point guard Kihei Clark, who led the ’Hoos in scoring with 17 points.
Clark was correct. Virginia is getting its act together at precisely the right time.
Bennett believes his team is winning close games because several of his experienced players — Clark, Mamadi Diakite, Braxton Key and Jay Huff — went through similar scenarios last season, holding things together during intense moments of games while newcomers collect their own experience.
Meanwhile, Virginia’s program is built on defense, and that’s what helped the Cavaliers avoid the upset Saturday.
“The way our system is geared, it shouldn’t matter home or away,” Bennett said after becoming only the fifth coach in ACC history to notch nine consecutive winning seasons in the league.
The others? High cotton.
Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Vic Bubas.
Locking up another winning season in the conference didn’t come easy. Well, it did and it didn’t.
Virginia slapped its suffocating defense on the Panthers early, as Pitt missed 12 of its first 13 shots and actually made only 14 of its first 46, including a key six-minute drought when the Cavaliers went on an 8-0 run.
“They are a hard team to score against,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “That’s why teams don’t shoot a good percentage against them and, on average, don’t score a lot of points against them. So I do think a lot of it was them. Some of it was us.”
The Cavaliers — first in the nation in scoring defense and fourth nationally in analytics guru Ken Pomeroy’s defensive-efficiency numbers — flexed those muscles for most of the game before the Panthers threw a scare into Virginia with a late-game surge, hitting 8 of 10 shots that narrowed their deficit from 14 points to a chance to tie at the buzzer.
Bennett was impressed with a relatively inexperienced Pitt team’s heart and fight at the end, and was somewhat disappointed by his own squad’s first-half rebounding and too many turnovers.
“As quick as Pitt’s guards are, they can get back into the game,” the UVA coach said. “That doesn’t take away from the victory. It was one of those games where we held up until the end.”
Virginia was outrebounded 17-11 in the first half, but allowed the Panthers only three offensive boards after the break. The Cavaliers decided to be more aggressive, particularly in the post, in the second half, and it paid off.
Four Wahoos scored in double figures, and the defense was strong yet again.
“We stepped it up on defense a little bit in the second half,” said Clark. “I think we had six straight stops during one stretch and tried to keep them out of the paint. [The Panthers] like to drive.”
On a day where a lot of teams may have lost focus and suffered an upset, Virginia prevailed in another close decision.
“I think we’ve been in close games almost every single time, and we’re taking better care of the ball late in games and making free throws,” Clark said.
Just enough to win. More moments than the other guys.
For now, that’s good enough.
