Struggling Wahoos suffer third straight defeat in home loss to N.C. State

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N.C. State 68, No. 15 Virginia 61

With just over three minutes left in Wednesday night’s game at John Paul Jones Arena, No. 15 Virginia was down 5 points. But Reece Beekman was hounding N.C. State’s Cam Hayes beyond the 3-point line. The true freshman was even able to knock the ball away from Hayes with five seconds on the shot clock. D.J. Funderburk retrieved the ball and handed it off to the 6-foot-3 Hayes, who, with the 7-1 Jay Huff in his face, let a desperation 3-pointer fly from way, way downtown with the shot clock expiring.

Perfect bank shot, 57-49 Wolfpack.

It was that kind of night for the Wahoos. Even when they did something well, which wasn’t often enough, things still went awry.

The Cavaliers made a run spanning the late part of the first half and the early part of the second half — and even made the game interesting in the final minutes despite that lucky 3 — but ultimately fell to the Wolfpack in a frustrating loss for the team and its fans.

It was the third consecutive defeat for the Wahoos (15-6, 11-4 ACC) after winning four in a row and 11 of 12, and their first setback at home this season. Virginia had captured 15 straight victories in Charlottesville, with the most recent setback before Wednesday coming versus the same N.C. State program Jan. 20, 2020, when the Wolfpack (11-9, 7-8) won, 53-51.

"If you don’t play sound, good basketball, you’ll get beat in this league," coach Tony Bennett said, "and we’re certainly finding that to be the truth."

Bad start puts UVa in a hole

Coming off a heartbreaking loss at Duke, the team didn’t appear angry and ready to get back on track, but rather timid and weary. The ‘Hoos fell behind 17-4 in the first nine minutes before showing signs of life. Finally, with the score 24-10, a Justin McKoy jump hook and a Kihei Clark 3 sparked a Virginia run. UVa was able to cut the margin to 25-21 before State stabilized itself and took a 29-23 advantage into the break.

Still, the first half ended with the Cavaliers on a 13-5 run, and for as bad as they looked at times in the first 20 minutes, being down 6 and with a bit of momentum seemed like a pretty good place to be.

In the first two minutes and change of the second half, Sam Hauser made two 3s to tie the game. UVa took its first lead at 35-33 on a pair of Huff free throws, which capped a 25-9 streak that began at the 5:34 mark of the first half with McKoy’s jumper.

At that point, I did think Virginia would do its usual thing: take the game over, grind down the Pack, and win by 5-10 points. But I think this was the sort of moment where the home crowd could have really played a factor. After rallying from a score of 24-10 to take the lead, JPJ would’ve been jumping after Huff’s freebies, and perhaps State would’ve rushed a bad shot on its next possession. Instead, silence. Granted, Virginia was undefeated at home prior to Wednesday, but I think the lack of atmosphere could’ve impacted the result, especially with the team’s organic energy level appearing low.

On State’s next possession, Braxton Beverly faked left, got Clark to bite, then went right around a screen and passed to Jericole Hellems, who went up for the shot and was fouled by Hauser. He made one free throw. On the other end, Huff missed a 3, then Beverly hit a corner 3 when Clark couldn’t get to him in time after a skip pass from Dereon Seabron. The Pack took the lead 37-35, and this time, they didn’t give it up.

"When you’re in these tight games, any lapse you have — a missed block out, not forcing the guy the wrong way to screen — those just get magnified," Bennett said.

A look at the box score, key moments

Hauser scored 21 points, but only 2 in the first half when the Cavaliers got off to a slow start. In the second half, he made 5 of his 8 3-point attempts, with two in the final 30 seconds that, frankly, only gave UVa faithful false hope. Hauser had another deep attempt that hit every part of the rim but did not go through the hoop, which would’ve cut the Pack’s lead to 65-64 with 13 seconds left. The Marquette transfer was only able to snag two rebounds, well below his season average of 6.8.

Huff had another double-double (the ninth of his career) and an all-around great game with 19 points, 11 boards, five blocks, and three steals. But he made only 1 of 6 shots from beyond the arc on a night in which the team could’ve really used a couple more treys. Hauser was the only Wahoo to make more than one 3. Plus, Huff’s triple didn’t come until Virginia was down 8 with under five minutes remaining.

"Sam got hot late, and Jay, statistically, didn’t hit 3s but scored some. After that, it was hard," Bennett said. "We haven’t become gritty enough or tough enough to lean on our defense to hold us in there. We did it a couple of times this year, but not consistently enough."

Kihei Clark had 11 points and seven assists, but he just was just 2 of 7 from the field with three turnovers. He made his lone 3-point attempt in the first half.

No other player scored more than 4 points. Trey Murphy III was locked up for a second straight contest. He managed just 2 points, missing all four of his 3-pointers. In the past two games, Murphy has combined for 6 points on seven shot attempts. On the season, the transfer from Rice is averaging 10.8 points and shooting 46% on 3s, so Virginia has to figure out a way to get him going again.

"Trey has to keep improving when they climb into him," Bennett said. "He’s very good in space, but how does this team play when the shots are not going in?"

Reece Beekman had 2 points on a jumper right before the halftime buzzer. It was his first field goal in four games (on Feb. 10 at Georgia Tech, he made three), and he missed four other attempts, including two badly missed 3s. The Milwaukee native added three assists, two rebounds and a steal to his tally.

Beekman also had two turnovers, one of which came at a terrible time with just under two minutes left. Virginia, down 57-51, had a fast-break opportunity, but it did not have a numbers advantage. Beekman hesitated as if he was going to pull up and set the offense, but then sort of half-heartedly tried to probe the defense. The ball was knocked away from him, and he lost control. A mad scramble ensued, and State was awarded the ball via the possession arrow.

Uncertainty in sports almost always leads to problems. I have confidence that in time, Beekman will have a better feel for what to do in that situation and won’t look as hesitant. But it definitely looks like Beekman has hit the dreaded freshman wall, and I’m not sure if there is enough time for him to regain his confidence for the final stretch of this season.

With Kadin Shedrick possibly shelved again with illness, McKoy played 16 minutes, the most floor time he’s seen since getting 19 minutes in the third game of the season. During a game in which the ‘Hoos looked especially sluggish, McKoy’s energy stood out, and he managed 4 points, three rebounds, and an assist. He missed a dunk at the 10-minute mark of the second half when it looked like Seabron slapped him across the forearm. Two free throws would’ve made the score 43-39.

Another possible foul that wasn’t called happened in a similar situation at the seven-minute mark when Huff went up for a dunk and was possibly swiped across the arm by Funderburk. Two made free throws would’ve made it 49-43 (or 49-45 if you want to assume McKoy would’ve made two free throws in the first situation).

Francisco Caffaro played 15 minutes, his most action this season, and contributed 2 points, one board, and one block. With State starting a big lineup, the tall Argentinian seemed to fit in well into the game’s flow once he entered. With Caffaro in, Virginia began to wake up.

"I thought the physicality that Justin brought and Francisco brought us was good," Bennett said. "I thought they battled hard, and that was a physical game, and [we] kind of climbed back in it. Sam played his heart out but we need more [from everyone]."

Casey Morsell got in for 11 minutes and had a couple of nice hustle plays but missed all three of his shots and did not score. He had one rebound and one steal, which led to McKoy’s blocked dunk attempt.

A series of miscues or unfortunate occurrences hurt Virginia’s chances of pulling out the victory in the closing minutes, many of which I went over:

  • Caffaro missed a layup at 43-37 with 10:28 remaining
  • McKoy’s blocked dunk at 43-37 with 10:04 left
  • Huff’s blocked dunk at 49-41 with seven minutes left
  • State’s banked-in 3 made it 57-49 with 3:11 remaining
  • Beekman’s turnover at 57-51 with 1:57 left
  • Hauser’s missed 3 at 65-61 with 13 seconds remaining

Add it all up, and with a subpar performance overall, you get a disappointing loss for the ‘Hoos.

N.C. State tore up Virginia inside, as late in the game the Wolfpack had 30 points in the paint. They captured the edge in the rebounding battle 28-24.

"They started going at us," Bennett said. "You look at the points in the paint and those things, that was discouraging, but we still had some chances."

State shot 45.5% from the field, 5 for 12 (41.7%) from deep, and, in another sign it just wasn’t Virginia’s night, went an impressive 23 of 28 at the line (82.1%). On the season, State is shooting 70.1% at the stripe, 188th in the nation. The Wahoos shot 37% from the field, dragged down mightily by a 7-for-25 effort from beyond the arc (28%). UVa’s loss spoiled a perfect 14-for-14 outing at the free throw line.

"Our defense sort of let us down, but I thought offensively, we did miss some shots that were quality looks, and sometimes you just got to make shots," Bennett said.

The Pack were led by 16 points from Hayes (3 for 4 on 3s), 14 from Funderburk (six rebounds), 12 from Shakeel Moore, and 8 points and eight boards from Hellems. Hayes and Moore are freshmen who started Wednesday but came off the bench in the squads’ first meeting Feb. 3, a 64-57 UVa win. In that game, only Hellems reached double figures for the Pack with 23 points. Hayes and Moore scored only 4 and 2 points, respectively, and Funderburk was coming off a suspension, did not start, and had 9 points.

Where does Virginia go from here?

So what can fix the ‘Hoos, and is there time left to do it?

Defenses are focusing solely on Hauser, Huff, and Murphy, daring Clark and Beekman to beat them. As a coach, I would never leave that trio, and would think about doubling Hauser and Huff inside the paint, though if they aren’t shooting 3s, that is already kind of a win. I would sag off Clark and Beekman and try to take away Clark’s patented blow-by, hesitation-move layups. With these strategies, defenses can prevent Virginia’s best 3-point shooters from getting open and make it less likely Clark is successful when he drives into the lane.

Beekman is just not giving enough to the starting lineup at this point. His best abilities aren’t even being used with him not being the primary ballhandler. And he’s afraid to shoot and not good at it right now. I think a lot of fans envisioned a Clark-Ty Jerome scenario like we saw at the end of the 2018-19 season with two point guards on the floor, but that just hasn’t come to fruition.

Tomas Woldetensae, who has missed the past two games due to COVID contact-tracing, could be a breath of fresh air for the starting five with his 3-point shooting. Bennett said he hopes Woldo will be available for Monday’s home game against Miami.

"Tom will be a welcome addition," Bennett said, "and some scoring on the perimeter would help if he could knock down some shots."

Starting Woldo over Beekman would put one more offensive threat on the floor and make choices tougher for defenses. Beekman can be brought in to play his best position while Clark gets a breather. Many fans are banging the drum to get Woldetensae into the starting lineup, so it will be interesting to see what Bennett decides to do.

Shedrick provided a lot of bounce early in the season when he entered games. It would be great to see if Virginia could extract a little bit of that from him again. The problem is his condition — we might not be able to see a full-power Shedrick till next season.

Similarly, I am on board with putting McKoy in there and letting him get a feel for games and see what he can do. Especially when the offense is struggling or the team looks sluggish, there’s nothing to lose. Let’s see what he can bring to the table. Shedrick and McKoy are going to be needed anyway next season, so let’s try to get them prepared.

The solutions aren’t perfect. Woldetensae is a streaky shooter. He may be 4 for 5 one game and then 1 for 4 in another. Still, even the threat of his shot can keep defenses more honest. He may also give up something on the defensive end over Beekman, but I think he is worth trying at this point.

And then of course with Shedrick and McKoy, we just haven’t seen them for long stretches in ACC games. While they bring good energy, what other tangible benefits can they bring? And that’s if Shedrick is even close to 100%. It would be good if we can get rest for Hauser and Huff and not have the team fall behind.

There isn’t much time left in the season to implement major changes. There’s no game Saturday, meaning the team has a little bit of extra time to look in the mirror.

I think the team will bounce back and beat Miami, which has really struggled all season. But after that, the ‘Hoos face better competition with Louisville in the finale, and likely quality opponents in the ACC and NCAA tournaments. It could be rough if UVa doesn’t raise its level of play.

But I do think this team might still have a run left in it. Last season’s team lost three straight ACC games and four of five, but finished the campaign on an eight-game winning streak. Of course, that streak began Feb. 11. This team doesn’t have as long, but there is time to get hot and regain that missing mojo. All it takes is one game to get back in the right headspace.

"The message was don’t hang your head. You can’t do that,” Bennett said. “The pillars in our program matter, and you stay unified. One thing you must do is look in the mirror and say, ‘Am I being as physically tough and mentally sound and tough as I absolutely can be to give ourselves the best chance to be as good as we can be?'"

Last Saturday's game: I needed to work on something for my job hunt last weekend, so I didn't end up getting to a recap of the Cavaliers' 66-65 loss to Duke. I guess that sort of was a good thing for me, but I expected the team to bounce back against N.C. State. I got a taste of writing about a loss as well. It's been a rough stretch for the 'Hoos and their fans. If you want to subject yourself to reading more about the defeat at the hands of the Blue Devils, check out Seattle Hoo's recap at Hoos Place.

Photo credits: Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress via AP

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