After sluggish start, ‘Hoos wake up, turn up 'D,' and down Demon Deacons

on
No. 22 Virginia 70, Wake Forest 61

Virginia fans were eager for the start of Wednesday’s 9 p.m. game at John Paul Jones Arena versus Wake Forest for a couple of reasons. One, the Wahoos had not played in a week because yet another COVID-induced pause caused the home game over the weekend against Virginia Tech to be postponed. And two, the game served as a needed distraction to the day’s troublesome events at the U.S. Capitol.

But fans were not getting what they wanted in the first several minutes of action.

The Demon Deacons (3-2, 0-2 ACC), the Hoos Place panel’s unanimous pick to finish last in the conference, jumped out to a 12-point lead about 11 minutes into the game. But No. 22 Virginia (6-2, 2-0) — fueled by a breakout game from Reece Beekman and a double-double from Sam Hauser — used a sort of slow-building, old-fashioned Cavalanche to close out the first half and the contest to defeat Wake for the ninth straight time.
The Deacons led 26-14, but Virginia closed to within 30-29 at the 3:37 mark on Beekman’s explosive steal and dunk. Wake was able to build the margin back to 5 by the break. But the Cavaliers fairly quickly took charge in the second half, capturing an advantage for the first time at 45-43 with 16:14 remaining on Kihei Clark’s 2-point jumper.

After the Deacons made it 26-14, the ‘Hoos outscored them 56-35, and it would have been worse for Wake had UVa not finished a bit sloppily.

Casey Morsell, who started the previous game at Notre Dame, was out due to COVID contact-tracing, as was Austin Katstra. (And Kody Stattmann, who hasn’t played since Dec. 1, is getting checked out for a non-COVID-related health issue.) Most of coach Tony Bennett’s staff was out as well. As a result, Director of Player Personnel Johnny Carpenter and Associate AD for Basketball Administration/Operations Ronnie Wideman were elevated to the top assistant spots on the bench, which was definitely a thrill for them.
“I just tried to keep … [asking the players questions,]” Bennett said. “[Backup point guard] Chase Coleman, I could hear his voice. He wants to be a coach. He was excellent, talking to the guys. He really has good insight on the game. I always rely on the players, and I was asking them stuff during the time outs. I could hear Chase and some of the other guys saying some things, and I thought all of that was important. So, you know, we came together. We made the most of the situation and will hopefully get guys back soon.”
Beekman got the start along with Clark, Hauser, Jay Huff, and Trey Murphy III. Hauser led the way with his second straight double-double, recording 16 points, 11 rebounds (10 defensive), three assists, and a steal.

But Beekman was the player who opened everyone’s eyes, tallying 12 points, five steals, and three assists. He made 4 of his 8 shots from the field and went 1 of 3 from deep. Beekman had two turnovers. At least one steal was caused by good defense from Murphy on his man, who ended up on the floor and throwing an errant pass to Beekman. His five steals tied him for the most by a Virginia player in 10 years, with Ty Jerome being the most recent to also accomplish the feat, in December 2018. But it’s worth noting Beekman did it against an ACC school, while Jerome did it versus Morgan State.
On offense, Beekman (in photo below) was aggressive, something Bennett has been wanting to see more out of the true freshman.

“I’ve been encouraging him … the last probably month and a half, [saying], ‘We need you to be aggressive.’ I said, ‘Sometimes when you play with a Kihei, I think you feel like, I’m with Kihei and I’m just supposed to, sort of, you know, occasionally do stuff,'” Bennett said. “I said, we can’t afford that. We’re shorthanded. … You’ve got to be assertive. And I told him, you can play poorly. That can happen. I think he’s quiet by nature, but he does stuff. You watch him subtly, and I thought he was aggressive with the drive to create. Obviously, he had the nice dunk, a couple big steals. It’s uncanny how many times … he’ll tip balls and do things. That was really something I liked, his assertiveness. I think that’s important for us moving forward.”

Hauser made just 1 of his 6 3-pointers, meaning he did a lot of damage with his midrange game, something that could maybe be a bigger part of his arsenal moving forward. Hauser, who entered UVa as a career 44.4% shooter from beyond the arc, acknowledged afterward that his 3-pointer has not been falling as much as he would like (34.1% on the year). But he’s converting 2-pointers at an impressive 63.6%, about 11% better than his career average. On Wednesday, he went 6 of 7 inside the arc, though one of those makes came with his feet barely inside the 3-point line.

On Hauser’s rebounding, Bennett said, “He’s a good defensive rebounder. He knows how to pursue the ball, and he’s sturdy and … he finds it, he goes after it. Rebounding is about heart. It’s about finding it, pursuing and going and grabbing it, and making it yours, and Sam does that.”
Hauser was not the only Cavalier to struggle from deep. Only Murphy kept up his torrid shooting pace, going 3 of 6 and 4 of 8 from the floor overall on his way to 13 points, while adding two assists, a rebound, and a steal. The Rice transfer is now shooting 51.4% on 3s this season after entering UVa as a 39% 3-point shooter.

The team went 6 of 20 on triples (30%), meaning everyone other than Murphy went 3 of 14. Virginia made 5 of its 6 3s in the first half, which ended up being a very good thing, because Wake could not miss in the first 20 minutes. The Deacons made six 3s and shot 62.5% from the field overall. They did cool off in the second half, but still finished with a 10-of-19 performance (52.6%) from beyond the arc and 51.1% overall. That’s curious for a team that came in at 32.4% on 3s against Division I competition. Curious, that is, unless you took a look at my Hoos Place colleague St. Lou Hoo’s preview.

But for the most part, the ‘Hoos did step up their defense in the second half, with Wake notching just 22 points in the frame. The Deacons also had 13 turnovers in the game compared to only six for the Wahoos.

“I thought offensively, we were pretty good in the first half. We got the shots we needed, but defensively, we had a lot of trouble. Again they were hitting shots. We had some breakdowns,” Bennett said. “And then the second half, I thought we adjusted well. I thought the ball pressure picked up. Kihei decided to really pick up the ball and everybody with, just some adjustments, I think that helped.

“We were having trouble with the ball screen,” Bennett continued. “No. 25 [Ismael] Massoud, the way he was screening and separating, and it’s tough. We’ve had trouble with that. So we just tried to do a few different things. Tried switching some screens. We got to kind of pick our poison. So we decided to stay a little more at home on him, and I thought … it helped us.”

Massoud scored 13 points and made 4 of 6 3-pointers. Jonah Antonio had 14 points and went 4 for 7 from deep. Isaiah Mucius went 5 for 12 from the floor and 1 for 3 from deep, notching 14 points.

UVa’s honey badger, Clark, was indeed the catalyst for the tougher defense, though Beekman had more steals. Clark had another nice all-around game, tallying 10 points, three assists, two steals, and a rebound. He had three turnovers. Clark made 5 of 8 shots from the floor, making a variety of 2-pointers on some snazzy moves around the rim again, and missed his only 3-point attempt.

“[Clark’s] just got to be tough and sound and be assertive but not step over that line,” Bennett said. “Last year was such a valuable experience for him because he had so much on his plate, and it was good for him. He had success and struggled at times. I think he’s got a better feel, and it’s nice at times when Reece can play, and you have another ball-handler out there that can make some decisions, it’s not just Kihei.”

Despite the poor below-average outing on 3-pointers, Virginia shot a blistering 68.8% on 2s, resulting in an overall field goal percentage of 53.8. The ‘Hoos were solid at the line as well, going 8 for 10, while Wake went just 5 of 11. The rebounding battle was even, 26-26.

Huff had 11 points, three rebounds, a steal, and a block in a relatively quiet game. It was only the third time under Bennett that every starter reached double figures.
With a short bench, Bennett tightened his rotation. Every starter except Huff (24 minutes) played at least 36 minutes, with Clark playing all 40.

Justin McKoy was again effective in just a short amount of floor time, posting 6 points and five rebounds in 14 minutes. Kadin Shedrick played three minutes and made one basket. Tomas Woldetensae played eight minutes and missed two shots, one being a 3.
Like the Notre Dame matchup, it would have been nice to see the ‘Hoos dominate Wake Forest a bit more, as they have done more or less over the past decade. But under the circumstances, it was a solid victory.

“We just talked about banding together without [Katstra, Stattmann, and Morsell]. We knew we were going to have to come together,” Bennett said. “I thought we had a spirited week of practice and obviously, events that happened today, you know there’s a lot of stuff going on, but we just talked about let’s try to take a step in the right direction.”

Photo credit: Erin Edgerton/The Daily Progress

Comments

Post a Comment