Williford drew up winning play and for Beekman it was déjà vu all over again

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Never mind that Tony Bennett had tasted victory only once at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Never mind that Big Monday was yet another celebration of Mike Krzyzewski’s final season as Duke’s coach. Never mind that pundits made Virginia a 12-point dog and that only a couple of its players had ever set foot in one of the most hellish atmospheres in all of sports.

Cameron is no place for the faint of heart. Better teams have completely unraveled and melted into a puddle of goo before the frenzied confines of the ACC’s oldest battlefield.

In the cramped, crusty visitors’ locker room before Virginia’s biggest game of the season, Bennett directed what his players would have to sacrifice to win this game over the No. 7 team in the nation in an arena where the Cavaliers had won only three times in nearly 40 years.

“We challenged them to play to win … don’t play not to lose,” Bennett said. “Make it physical and tough. We just said be laser-focused to start and play our game. Get it to our kind of game if we can, and battle. I thought our guys did that.”

Duke took its first lead at 10:48 of the first half and didn’t lead again until four minutes remained in the game, as a physical Virginia team established beachheads in the lane and dominated the gifted Blue Devils all night.

The Cavaliers were unruffled as they outscored Duke in the paint, 52-28, and beat the Devils at their own game, scoring 20 points off 15 Duke turnovers. UVA’s ability to keep its composure early and play the Blue Devils jaw-to-jaw the rest of the way was huge.

“They carved us up,” Krzyzewski said afterward.

“We came out a little sluggish, and UVA punched us in the mouth,” Trevor Keels said. “We fought at the end but you’ve got to give props to UVA. They came into Cameron and put on a fight. So you’ve got to give them credit.”

For all the bruising style of play that nearly resulted in a skirmish at one point, it all came down to the final minute, and eventually the final second.

Duke led 68-66 with 1:26 to play. Virginia point guard Kihei Clark, who played all but 93 seconds of the game and dished nine assists (only two turnovers), missed a reverse layup with 1:17 showing, but the Cavaliers kept possession. Fourteen seconds later, Clark missed a 3-point attempt and it was Duke ball. At that point of the game, Virginia had made only one of 11 3-point attempts.

Duke called time out with 50 seconds to play, but turned it over. Armaan Franklin missed a shot, but UVA kept possession on a jump ball and Bennett called time out with 7.2 seconds to play.

Beekman inbounded the ball, which ended up in Clark’s hands outside the arc. He quickly spotted a wide-open Beekman on the left side of the floor and launched the death blow.

BOOM!

It was déjà vu all over again for Beekman, just like his 3-point dagger at the buzzer that defeated Syracuse in last March’s ACC Tournament.

Beekman said afterward the shot made him immediately think back to the buzzer-beater over Syracuse.

“Another big shot and I hit it,” Beekman said.

Beekman delivered Virginia its first road win against a top-10 team since a 2019 win over No. 8 North Carolina. It was Duke’s fourth loss of the season, third in the ACC, and only its second at home (Miami won the other).

Only 1.1 seconds remained on the clock as Beekman’s shot swished through the net, a play that was designed during that last time out.

“The end of the game, that wasn’t complicated,” Krzyzewski said.

His sophomore center Mark Williams accepted the blame for the final seconds letdown.

“It was on me,” Williams said. “I lost Beekman. I should’ve stayed with him off the inbounds, and he got an open look and he knocked it down. There’s not much more to it. I take full responsibility for it. I let my teammates down.”

Bennett was elated with the victory, which gave the Cavaliers a desperately needed Quad-1 win in the NET rankings.

“I’m glad we were 2-12 from three instead of 1-12,” Bennett cracked afterward. “Perhaps Duke was flat coming off a big game (the Devils had destroyed rival North Carolina two nights previous in Chapel Hill). I don’t know, but I think we certainly had a real solid game and we’re just trying to continue to improve and got a lift from everyone (See related game story and boxscore for player breakdowns).

Bennett gave credit to associate head coach Jason Williford for drawing up the inbounds play for the final shot of the game.

“[Duke] put Mark Williams on the ball and that’s tough for anybody, and we weren’t sure,” Bennett said about the last play. “We had a zone call and a man call, and Coach Williford, he’s our underneath out-of-bounds coach. I learned a long time ago when I started, when there’s an underneath out-of-bounds, it’s a way to give your coaches ownership and it’s something that had we lost, it would’ve been his fault, not mine. No, just kidding.

“But [Williford] studies the other team and that’s kind of what he specializes in, among other things, so he drew it up. We called the time out. He gave them two actions, and of course we talk about stuff, but then he changed it. Obviously for Reece to get that shot at the end and just have the composure to knock it down a la Syracuse in the ACC tournament.”

Beekman became only the third visiting player to knock down the game-winning field goal with two seconds or less at Cameron in the past 20 years.

“They were hungrier and tougher than we were,” Krzyzewski said.

That’s exactly what Bennett wanted to hear. He’s been demanding his team play more rugged basketball of late, and it has paid off. The Cavaliers have won six of their last eight games, including wins over the ACC’s upper echelon, Miami and Duke back-to-back.

Bennett, whose team is now 15-9 overall and 9-5 in the ACC, received a text message from his father, former coach Dick Bennett, before the game that said, “Lace ‘em up, do it again.”

The Cavaliers are among the six teams now within a game of first place and will have several opportunities down the home stretch to shake things up even more, with return engagements with Duke and Miami, along with games against Florida State and Virginia Tech.

Lace ‘em up, do it again.