Lack of first-half success doesn’t deter Clark as junior lifts ‘Hoos over Yellow Jackets

on

No. 9 Virginia 57, Georgia Tech 49

In the first half of Wednesday’s game at Georgia Tech, polarizing Virginia point guard Kihei Clark missed each of his four shots. Sam Hauser and Jay Huff, the Cavaliers’ leading scorers this season, combined for fewer shots than him. Clark also didn’t get to the free throw line and added one turnover for good measure. So what did Tony Bennett tell him at halftime, with the team trailing by 6 points?

He told him to keep shooting the ball.

In the second half, Clark scored 14 points on a career-high four 3-pointers on eight attempts, added a 2-point jumper, and led the No. 9-ranked Wahoos (14-3, 10-1 ACC) to a come-from-behind victory over the pesky Yellow Jackets (9-7, 5-5), who seemed hellbent on defeating UVa after narrowly missing out on the upset in Charlottesville on Jan. 23 when the ‘Hoos won 64-62.

“Those of us who’ve watched [Clark] know he’s got that heart inside, and he’s kind of fearless,” Bennett said of his leader from Los Angeles.

“If [Tech goes] under the screen, let it ride and shoot it,” Bennett said he told Clark at halftime. “And he did that. I thought he played terrific, and our defense held us in there in the first half.”

Clark (right) also dished out six assists, finished with just that one turnover, and tacked on three rebounds.

“I think at times, I do hesitate a little bit [to shoot],” Clark told broadcaster and UVa alumnus Cory Alexander after the game. “But my guys in my corner are just telling me to shoot the ball with confidence, so that’s what I did in the second half.”

One of the guys building Clark up was Trey Murphy III.

“When we went in at halftime, everybody was talking, and I talked to Kihei as well," Murphy said. "I told him, ‘Look, if they’re going at you like that, shoot the ball. We’ve been working all summer and offseason, as well as the preseason, on your jump shot.’ And he was knocking it down very consistently. So l had confidence in Kihei, and we had to make sure that he knew that.”

If it wasn’t for Murphy’s performance in the first half, Virginia might not have been able to rally for the win. For all of the attention and praise heaped onto Clark for his second half, Murphy’s first 20 minutes were almost as good. He scored 13 points in the first half and finished with a team-leading 18 on 7-of-11 shooting, including 2 for 4 beyond the arc. He chipped in five rebounds, a block, and an assist.

“Trey took advantage of some good opportunities, and he got us going to start the game,” Bennett said.

Virginia found itself behind 26-20 at the break, but it outscored Tech 37-23 in the second half. UVa had 10 turnovers in the first half, already more than its season average, but took a little bit better care of the ball in the second half, with seven.

“I think [the turnovers] were why we were down early,” Clark said. “I think if we limit those mistakes, we don’t put ourselves in too big of a hole.”

The Yellow Jackets shot just 36% from the field and a measly 19% from 3-point land (4 for 21) after entering the game at better than 36%. For the most part, the Cavaliers played solid defense without fouling. The Jackets shot 11 free throws, making nine.

UVa made 49% of its shots and 35% from beyond the arc (7 for 20). The whistle did not go in the Wahoos’ favor as they shot just two free throws, with Murphy making both.

Bennett complimented the defensive effort, something he was happy to see after the team struggled against Pittsburgh on Saturday.

“It was better. It had to be,” Bennett said. “They are such a good 3-point shooting team, and they spread you out. You had to really slide and protect. We got back-doored a couple times and had some breakdowns. But I thought that defensively … it felt like there was more of a fight and more second, third, fourth efforts, which is required on the defensive end.”

In particular, Clark did a nice job of making Yellow Jackets star Jose Alvarado work for what he got.

“Kihei’s job on Alvarado shouldn’t go unnoticed either, defensively,” Bennett said.

The senior recorded 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting, including 2 for 4 beyond the arc. He tallied three rebounds, two assists, and a steal, but also had four turnovers.

“[Alvarado’s] a great player,” Clark said. “Offensively, he can really shoot the ball, and he’s real crafty. Defensively, he can really get to the passing lanes and disrupt people’s offense. I think he leads the league in steals (Clark is right, at about three steals per game), so hats off to him. But I’m glad we pulled this one out.”

Hauser and Huff did not have big scoring games as Georgia Tech focused on stopping them.

“They purposefully took Sam and Jay out of it,” Bennett said, “and other guys had to step up and make some plays. … I kind of just tried to wind our guys up [at the half.] … I said, ‘Throw caution to the wind. Be sound, but be aggressive. You gotta go make some plays. You gotta get into the paint.'”

Hauser and Huff still managed to have a massive impact on the game’s outcome.

Hauser recorded 8 points on 4-for-6 shooting, only taking one 3-pointer, which he missed. Smartly, he did his damage inside the arc. Hauser was huge on the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds while adding five assists and a steal.

Huff had 6 points by making all three of his 2-pointers. He missed his two 3s, and added an assist and a steal.

“[Hauser and Huff] screened, they moved, they got on the glass, they made the next pass,” Bennett said. “Then the second half, we moved Sam a little more, we adjusted. We tried … two or three things in the first half, and I could just see, I felt like … you’re going to have to make plays, and we’re going to have to just attack a little more and be aggressive. That’s the sign of a really good player, when they say, ‘OK, I might not get as many touches or shots from how they are guarding me, but I’m going to keep moving, finding things.’ And even Tomas [Woldetensae] coming in, his movement, he had a nice layup, but him moving just created different looks, and it was just enough plays made.”

Huff’s biggest contributions came on effort plays. He had nine rebounds and four blocks, including a significant one right before the halftime buzzer when he pinned Moses Wright’s layup against the backboard.

“Huge play,” said Bennett, who had to note that he thought Hauser got fouled on his layup attempt at the other end before Huff’s block. “Moses Wright had some hard drives, and Jay [bothered] him, but I really thought he covered for us and was so active rim-protecting today.”

Wright had 8 points and six rebounds as he went just 4 for 11 from the field, including 0 for 2 on 3-pointers. Jordan Usher had 12 points on a 4-for-9 effort, but he missed all three of his 3s as well.

Huff had two big plays in a span of 90 seconds late in the second half as Virginia made its late run to secure the win.

On the first, after Tech switched to a 1-3-1 zone, Huff, positioned at the top of the paint, found Murphy in the corner for a 3-pointer to put the ‘Hoos up 51-45.

On the second, Hauser missed a wide-open 3, but Huff scrapped for the rebound and then went up for a thunderous dunk to make it 55-47.

“I thought Jay’s hustle play to get that offensive rebound [and] dunk late, I thought he did a good job,” Bennett said.

Reece Beekman, who scored 7 points and made a 3-pointer in the first half that snapped UVa’s scoreless streak of seven minutes, played great defense on Michael Devoe for a second straight game. Devoe, who entered averaging more than 13 points and shooting 40% from 3-point range, finished with just 2 points on a 1-for-10 night from the floor, and went 0 for 5 from 3-point range. At John Paul Jones Arena, Devoe went 1 for 8 and scored 3 points.

“All of the guys, I think they realized they had to slide, and you can just feel both teams were tired at the end. But we just got enough shots to go down and plays to be made and coupled it with sound defense,” Bennett said.

Beekman also had five rebounds, two assists, and two blocks. Woldetensae had 4 points. Casey Morsell played two ineffective minutes, recording one turnover and one near-air ball. Kadin Shedrick played for the first time since Jan. 6, which was nice to see, but didn’t record any stats.

Virginia has now beaten Georgia Tech eight consecutive times, and the Yellow Jackets saw their 11-game ACC home winning streak end. Their last loss at McCamish Pavilion in conference play before Wednesday came against, of course, UVa last season, Jan. 18, by a score of 63-58.

This time, the Yellow Jackets proved to be another tough out, but the Wahoos got the job done.

“When we went into halftime, we knew it was gonna be a fight, but that’s Virginia basketball,” Clark said. “We just had to get stops down the stretch, and I think we grinded them, and I think it showed in the second half.”

Photo credit: ACC

Comments

Post a Comment