No. 1 Zags wallop Wahoos

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No. 1 Gonzaga 98, No. 16 Virginia 75

Corey Kispert conjured up memories of Carsen Edwards in Virginia fans’ minds Saturday, hitting 9 of 13 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 32 points as No. 1 Gonzaga drilled No. 16 UVa, 98-75, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

On Monday, Virginia fell to No. 23 in the Associated Press Top 25 as a result of the pounding.

Unlike Edwards, Kispert was not a one-man show. Big man Drew Timme (in photo below guarding Sam Hauser) also notched a career high, going 9 of 13 from the floor and 11 of 13 at the free throw line as he scored 29 points.

And unlike that game against Purdue, the Cavaliers (4-2) were no match for the Zags (7-0), who flexed their muscles as the nation’s top-ranked team. Virginia fans got one more definitive clue — after the loss to San Francisco and tight win versus Kent State — that their team is not in the same stratosphere as Gonzaga at the moment, despite the lofty expectations and No. 4 preseason ranking.

The Bulldogs raced out to a 7-0 lead. The ‘Hoos were able to hang around for a few minutes, and the score was 24-16 with 10:40 left in the first half after a Trey Murphy III free throw. But then Virginia endured a scoring drought that lasted until the 5:57 mark when Kihei Clark sliced in for a layup. By then, it was 36-18 and the game was all but over.

A 7-0 Cavaliers streak to close the half brought them to within 13 and sparked a little hope, but it was quickly extinguished in the opening minutes of the second half as the Zags built the lead to more than 20 before Tony Bennett took a timeout with just under 16 minutes remaining.

For the majority of the second half, it looked like Gonzaga was going to be the first opponent to score 100 on Virginia since Washington put up 106 on Nov. 22, 2010, at the Maui Invitational. That didn’t quite happen, but it was the most points UVa has given up since that contest. And only some garbage time buckets by the ‘Hoos got them to within the final 23-point margin. The lead swelled to as much as 33 with 5:45 left at 91-58.

The main issues for the Cavaliers were turnovers and defense. They had 15 turnovers, nine of which came in the first half when the Zags outscored them 19-3 off those miscues. Gonzaga only recorded seven turnovers in the entire game.

“They’re the best we’ve played by far and appear to be well-deserving of that ranking,” Bennett said. “But if you don’t take care of the ball, it’s hard enough to stop them when your defense is back and set. They’ve got too many actions and skilled guys, and we were fractured in that way, but when you give them points off turnovers — I think it was 19 in the first half, if I’m right — that puts you in a big hole. They really exposed some things that we have to go to work on and just try to … sure up. That was discouraging for sure, but it’s those areas, you start with ball security on the offensive end and then you play from there.”

Gonzaga went 10 of 20 from beyond the arc and shot 60.3% from the field, the worst mark given up by a Bennett-led UVa team. Those Huskies that scored 106 points shot 58%.

“They’re very dangerous offensively … when Kispert gets going like that. Timme’s a handful in the post, he can score. If you go and trap them, they got guys out there that, boom, they’re set, ready to shoot it,” Bennett said. “They score so well and transition, 25% of their scoring is in transition, and we help that even more with the turnovers. A lot of breakdowns, we had a lot of trouble on ball-screen defense. We’re so worried about our guys, we were stretching and there [were] layups at the rim. And then when we stayed too long, we left guys wide open. … Anytime we got a little momentum, it was either a turnover or they just got an easy bucket.”

Clark led Virginia with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting in 33 minutes and added four assists and two rebounds, but he contributed six turnovers.
Murphy came off the bench after starting against William & Mary, but he still played 27 minutes and scored 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. He also tallied three rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

Sam Hauser was UVa’s final double-digit scorer with 10 points in 33 minutes, but he went 0 for 4 on 3s and 3 of 11 overall. It was the second time he has not made a 3-pointer this year, with the first time being against USF. He had five boards, an assist, and a steal, but contributed to some of the defensive breakdowns.

Jay Huff recorded 9 points, six rebounds, and three blocks. He made one trey and went 4 for 5 from the field. That was his second-lowest number of shot attempts since taking two versus USF. As effective as he can be, he should have more attempts than that. But maybe Bennett decided to just rest him since the game was a blowout. Huff only got 13 minutes.

Casey Morsell had 8 points off the bench, including three field goals, but they all came in the waning minutes, and he continued to struggle from beyond the arc, going 0 for 3.

Tomas Woldetensae started again and went 2 for 4 from beyond the arc for 6 points in 16 minutes. His only other box score contribution was one steal.

Reece Beekman started alongside Clark and had 3 points on one triple. He also posted four assists and a pair of boards, but had four turnovers. Justin McKoy had 5 points and made one 3-pointer. Kadin Shedrick played 10 minutes and did not score, but had some hustle plays, logging four rebounds, two assists, and a steal.
There is not much good to take from this one, obviously, but I will try.

Gonzaga is very good. It also has been tested by four ranked teams and beat all of them, three by double digits. This was Virginia’s first ranked foe. I think that does matter. Having a matchup against Michigan State, Villanova, or even Florida, though the Gators are just outside the top 25, before the Bulldogs could have helped. The ‘Hoos jumped right into the deep end of the top 25 pool before dipping their toes in first.

“We needed this,” Bennett said. “We need to play against some teams that are high, major caliber. This was the first time, and we weren’t ready for it. It was too much. You can’t hide forever. This was important but painful. I wish it wasn’t as poor of a showing as it was.”

Clearly, UVa is not as good as we thought it would be at the beginning of the season, right now at least. That is disappointing. But there is hope.

The offense did put up 75 points and went 10 of 25 on 3s (40%) and shot 48.1% overall. UVa also was solid at the line again, 13 of 16 (81.3%). Those are bright spots, I think.

A low number of turnovers and solid defense are usually staples under Bennett, so I think both of things will improve. To have both of those factors work against Virginia and occur versus a highly ranked team was a rare and lethal combination. This defense is not going to be one of UVa’s best, but I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t improve significantly as the season goes on, just as it has done most if not every year the past decade.

And also, this program has been in this position before. The 2013-14 team was destroyed by Tennessee, 87-52, and those Volunteers were not nearly as good as the Zags are this season. UT finished 24-13 that year. And what happened after that? The midnight ride from Joe Harris, of course. Virginia proceeded to go 16-2 in the ACC regular season, won its first conference tournament since 1976, and made the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1995. Overall, UVa went 21-3 to finish the season after a 9-4 start.

Unfortunately, ACC play does begin Wednesday for the Wahoos as they travel to Notre Dame, which, frankly, has been more on Virginia’s level at 3-4, though the Fighting Irish have been tested more than the ‘Hoos, having already faced MSU, Ohio State, Kentucky (though the Wildcats are not themselves at 1-6), Duke, and Purdue.

But then Saturday, Virginia Tech comes to Charlottesville, and the Hokies have outplayed expectations so far at 7-1. I’m sure they’d like nothing more than to turn up a notch the pain fans have felt with these disappointing showings in hoops and their own victory on the gridiron.

There are no more pre-conference games. That schedule was about cut in half this season. There are no small-conference teams to “get right” against. No second chances against nonconference ranked foes.

I still believe these Cavaliers can be really good. We believe in Bennett. But they do have less time to show it than ever before.

Photo credit: UVa Athletics

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