Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett told the media Tuesday that games ebb and flow. For 16 minutes against North Carolina, UVA got a lot more ebb and a lot less flow.
Once the Hoos shook off a slow night offensively, however, they found a way to stay in that groove and pulled out a 65-58 win over the Tar Heels. With that victory, Virginia extended its streak to eight straight wins against North Carolina at the John Paul Jones Arena.
"Games kind of ebb and flow, certain things work offensively or get you good looks, some things don't look so good," Bennett said. "We were struggling really to shoot the ball and score in that first half and parts of the second. We said let's go small and take a look at a few things and then I think it just started opening things up. The ability to get the rim, post some guys up, and then it helped [when] Ben [Vander Plas] banged a three, [Isaac McKneely] hit a three, and I don't know if we had a couple in that run, but it just felt good and then momentum helped. The crowd was great. All that stuff makes a difference."
Ultimately, the Cavaliers shot 53.6% (15-28) in the second half as they posted 38 points on the board. That included making 4 of 8 3-pointers while also scoring 20 points in the paint. The hosts were also helped by 11 points off of turnovers in the second half.
A locked-in lineup for the final 15:12 acted as the catalyst for the flow in the right direction. That's when the under-16 media timeout came on the clock and Virginia exited that huddle with substitutions for the final time. Kihei Clark, Reece Beekman, and Armaan Franklin joined Vander Plas and McKneely for a small ball lineup that generated looks around the rim, drives to the basket, and some timely 3-point shooting.
That lineup inherited a 37-31 deficit when UNC's RJ Davis hit two free throws earned entering the timeout. Over the next 4:05, the Hoos flipped the scoreboard with a 15-3 burst that built a 46-40 lead. Vander Plas started the run with two free throws before Franklin followed with a hook shot in the paint and a tip-dunk on an offensive rebound. Beekman scored a layup and Vander Plas followed with a huge triple at the top of the key to give Virginia the lead at 42-40 with 12:52. The Hoos last led at 9:08 in the first half before that 3 went down.
A pair of Beekman free throws and a Vander Plas offensive rebound and dunk capped the run. The lead eventually grew to 10 points at 52-42 on another Vander Plas trey.
"I definitely feel like we had like kind of just a rhythm going with the guys on the court at the time," Beekman said. "We were all kind of in sync with the offense we were running and the way we were getting open shots."
The strong second half may have gotten a spark from the first-half finish. Over the final 1:32 before intermission, Virginia rattled off 7 points after scoring just 20 in the previous 18:28. In what turned out to be a bit of foreshadowing, Vander Plas hit a 3-pointer at the top of the key to start the late surge. Kadin Shedrick followed with a dunk and Clark capped it off with a layup following a Beekman steal. Clark had assists on the two other baskets in this stretch as well.
Instead of carrying a bigger deficit into halftime - UVA trailed by 9 at the under-4 minute media timeout - the hosts went to the break down only two.
"Just getting that little momentum before halftime is obviously huge," Vander Plas said. "We hit a couple of shots and I think Kihei took a charge on the sideline across from our bench. Just those energy plays. When shots aren't necessarily falling, if you're able to continue to do things like that, you just build off that and I think we did a pretty good of that going into halftime."
Even with that little boost before intermission and the surge to a 10-point lead midway through the second half, Virginia still needed to finish off the win as Carolina made a run. The visitors, playing without star center Armando Bacot for most of the game after he exited at the 18:41 mark of the first half with an injury, clawed back into it for the final five minutes.
With UVA holding a 56-52 lead, Franklin scored a tough bucket in the paint. The Tar Heels' Caleb Love responded with a 3-pointer to slice that advantage in half to 58-55. Following a timeout, Virginia ran some motion on the interior but when an opening didn't materialize, McKneely took matters into his own hands and delivered a jab step 3-pointer on the left wing with 2:21 to go. Love again halved the lead with a 3-pointer, but this time Beekman answered with a driving dunk that sealed the win with 34 seconds to go. Vander Plas provided the insurance play 10 seconds later with a steal and a transition dunk to reach the final seven-point margin.
Vander Plas led all scorers with 17 points on 6-10 shooting. He added 8 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 2 steals, and an assist as well. Beekman chipped in 13 points, 5 steals, and 5 assists as he continued to show improvement from a December hamstring injury. Franklin posted 12 points along with career highs of 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. He also had 2 assists. McKneely had 11 points, while Clark added 7 points, 2 steals, and 2 assists.
Defensively, Virginia allowed just 39.6% shooting as Carolina made 21 of 53 shots. That included 33.3% shooting from 3-point range (8-24). The Heels held a 36-32 edge on the glass, but UVA won that category by 4 rebounds in the second half despite playing the small ball lineup. Davis scored 16 points to lead his team, while Love and Jalen Washington each had 13. Washington came in with heavy minutes as Bacot never returned following his early game injury. He had 12 of his 13 points before halftime, though.
"I really liked the second half," Bennett said. "We were gritty defensively, ran good offense. You could see without Armando - their shot-making ability, when Davis and Love can make some of those shots, you just sort of have to take your hat off. As I said, they were obviously without Armando, that hurt them. ... That doesn't take away from how hard our guys played. We're imperfect, I get that, but they stayed true to trying to guard hard and get good shots."
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