The Virginia basketball team had been remarkably successful in close games this season, including a Thursday night overtime win against Boston College. That trend came to an agonizing, screeching halt just 24 hours later as NC State bounced UVA from the ACC Tournament in Washington D.C. on Friday.
The Wolfpack banked in a 3-pointer to tie the game at the buzzer and then won 73-65 in OT. The Hoos had 7 victories this season in games decided either in overtime or by 4 points or fewer in regulation before the disappointing result at the Capital One Arena.
UVA missed a chance to play in the ACC Tournament title game for the second straight season and upped fan anxiety about the NCAA Tournament bubble at the same time. The Hoos stand at 23-10 entering Selection Sunday.
"I think they showed their body of work over the course [of the season]," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. "This league is good, but no amount of politicking, no amount of stuff, they're going to get behind closed doors and you trust that they'll look at it and see the eye test and all those things. There's so much talk going on out there, it's too much. ... No question, I think over 20 games and league play, very proud of them. They did a lot. That's maybe the first game we lost that was close this year, quite honestly. That says a lot about these guys."
Virginia had escaped with wins in similar situations earlier this season.
Back on Nov. 22, UVA led West Virginia 54-51 in the final 40 seconds when Ryan Dunn fouled on a 3-point shot that allowed the Mountaineers to tie the game. The Hoos ended up winning on a Reece Beekman free throw with 2.3 seconds to go, though. Fast forward to Northeastern on Dec. 16. Dunn missed a free throw with 3:49 to go in a tie game, but Beekman eventually won it for the Cavaliers at 56-54 on a layup with 5.1 seconds remaining.
In a 59-53 overtime victory against this same NCSU team on Jan. 24, Michael O'Connell tied the game at the end of regulation - foreshadowing alert - on a rebound and putback with 9.8 seconds to go. The Cavaliers pulled out the win in OT despite going 5-9 at the free throw line in extra time. On Feb. 3 at Clemson, Jake Groves and Dante Harris both missed free throws in the final 20 seconds and Jordan Minor fouled PJ Hall on a 3-point attempt that allowed the Tigers to stay in the game, but they missed a game-winning shot attempt at the buzzer.
At Florida State on Feb. 10, Dunn fouled a 3-point shooter in the final 10 seconds but Tom House only made 1 of 3 shots so the Hoos held on for the 80-76 victory. Against Wake Forest on Feb. 17, the Cavaliers won 49-47, but missed 4 of 5 free throws in the final 40 seconds in a game where they shot 1-11 at the stripe overall. Then came Boston College in the ACC Tournament Quarterfinals. Virginia made 4 of 10 free throws in the final 4:30 to keep the door open and the Eagles forced overtime with a buzzer-beater from Mason Madsen before the Hoos managed to win.
Similar mistakes proved more costly this time around. The Cavaliers went 1-5 from the free throw line in the final 70 seconds and fouled on a 3-point attempt again. The Wolfpack took advantage.
UVA took a 57-52 lead when Beekman drove baseline and slammed home an emphatic dunk with 1:26 to go. Beekman got a steal on the other end and DJ Burns grabbed him, which led to a flagrant foul call by officials. Beekman, however, missed both free throws and then went 1-2 at the line a few seconds later as well. On the next possession, Dunn fouled Casey Morsell on a 3-point attempt and he made all the shots to cut the lead in half.
Still, Isaac McKneely had the chance to put the game away with 5.3 seconds to go but he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw opportunity. O'Connell raced the ball up the court and tossed up a shot on the left wing over McKneely. The ball banked off the glass and the rim, but found its way through the net to force the extra session in D.C.
"Yeah, kind of takes the breath out of you," McKneely said of the sequence. "It's hard to think you have the game won, especially I'm at the free-throw line, have a chance to win it, and I couldn't do it. I'll look back on it, get back in the lab, get back on the free-throw line and hopefully we'll get a chance to ice a game some other times. Hopefully I can do it. But, yeah, it takes the breath out of you. It's hard to come back and bounce back in overtime and play after that."
McKneely actually bounced back quickly as he drained a 3-pointer to open the scoring in overtime for the second straight night. This time, however, that wasn't enough. NC State gave the ball to Burns repeatedly in OT to make sure of that. Burns powered his way to three buckets and a free throw on an and-one call, which countered two dunks by Dunn in what was see-saw overtime period. The Pack eventually sealed it on an offensive rebound and assist from Mohamed Diarra to O'Connell plus 4-4 free throws from DJ Horne.
Burns led NCSU with 19 points and 5 rebounds, while O'Connell added 12 points and 3 assists. Morsell had 11 points and Diarra posted a near double-double with 9 points and 12 rebounds. Ben Middlebrooks added 12 points and 2 blocked shots as he caused problems in the first half in particular. Horne finished with 8 points. NC State shot 48.3% overall (28-58) and just 17.7% from 3-point range (3-17), but O'Connell's bank shot proved critical obviously. The Wolfpack did make 14 of 15 free throws.
Some of the statistics for the Cavaliers looked good in this one too. They did have 19 assists on 25 made shots. They managed 5 steals, 3 blocked shots, and 17 second-chance points. UVA also made 8 of 21 triples in regulation (38.1%) before falling off in that category in overtime to finish 9-28 on 3's overall (32.1%). Virginia only made 25 of 66 shots in the game (37.9%) and 3 of 11 shots in overtime (27.3%).
McKneely made 5 of 9 treys, including the one to start OT, as part of a big night. He led the way with 23 points and 2 assists. Beekman added 17 points and 11 assists for his second straight double-double. He moved into a tie for second on UVA's single-season assist list with 208 in the process. Dunn chipped in 10 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Taine Murray got the first start of his career and had 8 points. Minor finished with 4 points and 9 rebounds, while Groves had 3 points on a rough 1-6 shooting night.
In some ways, the statistics and the way the game played out paint a perfect picture of what has been a rollercoaster style season for Virginia. When the Wahoos make 3's and Beekman is slicing his way through defenses, the offense looks good. When shots aren't falling and defenses are able to slide off of some players, the offense looks rough. On the other end, the Hoos can defend well for stretches and erase possessions with steals or blocked shots, but they also are vulnerable to offensive rebounds and strong post play. The Cavaliers also have some mental lapses that lead to some frustrating moments.
This time around, that resulted in a disappointing loss in a close game as UVA fell to 3-15 against NC State at the ACC Tournament.
"Obviously a terrific, hard-fought game. We felt like we had it," Bennett said. "These two guys [Beekman and McKneely] up here with me on the podium played their hearts out. Man, did they battle. They fought. Made tough plays, guarded hard, did things. They threw in a tough shot. There's a lot of things in your mind saying could we have doubled Burns. That thought goes through your mind. Obviously we didn't make some free throws, had our opportunities. Certainly had that. But the effort was there, and we played certainly well enough to get that, and certainly did not, but I'll tell them not to hang their head, and we'll learn from it as always."
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