The Virginia basketball team ventured into bear country on Wednesday night and left with a few more scars for the 2024-2025 season. This time, California delivered a 75-61 loss to the Hoos as they dropped to 8-7 overall and 1-3 in the ACC. It's the sixth double-digit loss of the season for UVA.
It also marked Cal's first ever ACC win as the Bears had started 0-3 in the league.
California got a big night from Andrej Stojakovic as he recorded 23 points. DJ Campbell added 11, while Jeremiah Wilkinson and Joshua Ola-Joseph had 10 each. Andrew Rohde led Virginia with 14 points on 6-13 shooting alongside 6 assists. Jacob Cofie had 12 points on 5-9 shooting. Elijah Saunders added a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds, the first of his career, but made just 1 of 8 shot attempts. Isaac McKneely also struggled to make shots as he posted 3 points on 1-8 shooting. Ishan Sharma had 9 points on 3-8 shooting plus 2 assists.
Ultimately, the second half determined the winner. That's because a seesaw first half produced only a 35-32 lead for Cal at halftime as the two teams produced a mostly even duel. Both squads made 4 3-pointers in the first half and earned 8 free throw attempts too with UVA making all of its stripe shots, while the Bears made 7. Each had 5 assists in the first half and rebounds stood even at 18 apiece as well.
The second half was a different story. Cal started on an 8-0 run and never really let Virginia back into it. The hosts shot 47.6% after intermission by attacking the rim relentlessly. That also helped produce 25 free throw attempts in the second half with the Bears making 20. The Hoos, meanwhile, managed just 29.0% shooting in the second half while making 8 of 10 free throws.
"I think we played a decent first half there," Virginia interim coach Ron Sanchez said. "Our margin of error is too small. We can't compound mistakes by fouling 3-point shooters and then fouling guys that get to the basket. When you give a team 33 free throws for a game. They scored 27 points out of that. It's a challenge. We have to be smarter. We've got to be tougher."
Here are some takeaways from the loss to the Bears.
Second Half Problems
As mentioned above, Cal ripped off an 8-0 run after intermission to turn a 3-point edge into a 43-32 lead. Andrej Stojakovic, who started to get some rhythm late in the first half, started it with a traditional three-point play thanks to a layup and a free throw. He added another bucket to finish that quick flurry too. The Bears eventually ended up with 40 points in the second half.
The second half surge from California extended a theme for the Hoos.
Looking at the three ACC losses, the pattern has held. Louisville scored 38 points in the second half as it turned a 36-34 lead near the 16:30 mark into a 20-point win. SMU also pulled away later in the second half of the ACC opener and finished with 33 points in the second half. So far, NC State is the only conference opponent with fewer than 30 points after intermission.
The non-conference part of the schedule had similar stories as the inability to keep up in the second half was an issue then too. Tennessee and Florida both broke open close games after halftime. The Vols had 42 points in the second half, while the Gators ripped off 48. The St. John's game wasn't close at halftime, but the Red Storm lit it up with 41 points in the second half. Finally, Memphis erased a nine-point halftime deficit with 43 points after intermission to top UVA by two.
Not enough rebounds
Coach Sanchez has referenced two areas repeatedly during the team's losses this season: turnovers and rebounding. UVA has cleaned up the former as it had only 8 turnovers at California. That marked the fourth straight game with 10 or fewer in that category.
As for the latter? Not so much. The Bears hauled in 11 offensive rebounds and scored 12 second chance points from those opportunities. Mady Sissoko had 4 offensive rebounds, while Ola-Joseph added 3 more.
For Virginia, the defensive rebounding has been inconsistent at best and bad at worst. Opponents continually find extra chances from offensive rebounds this season. In fact, 9 of 15 opponents have hit double figures on the O-Boards. After the two tune-up games to start the season, 9 of 13 opponents have registered 10 or more. That includes 3 of 4 ACC foes so far: SMU (8), NC State (13), Louisville (14), and Cal (11).
All told, opponents have 162 offensive rebounds this season. That is an average of 10.8 per game.
Not enough stops
UVA's defensive efficiency number entering the game stood at 0.994 points per possession (ppp) allowed. That ranked 108th nationally per TeamRankings.com. Unsurprisingly, that's a big drop from last season when Reece Beekman and Ryan Dunn anchored a unit that allowed 0.945 ppp. Still, it's the worst number the Hoos have produced since before the Tony Bennett era began. The 2008-2009 team in Dave Leitao's final year finished with the same 0.994 number, while the worst ppp of the Bennett era checked in at 0.985 in 2010-2011.
It's also a little bit misleading. Virginia has been below 1.0 ppp allowed just once against the power competition. Here's a look at all of those games after the Cal loss.
- Villanova: 0.968
- Tennessee: 1.049
- St. John's: 1.356
- Florida: 1.403
- SMU: 1.068
- Memphis: 1.049
- NC State: 1.155
- Louisville: 1.186
- California: 1.190
Obviously, a lot of things can contribute to those numbers (rebounds from the section above for example) but one major factor is that Virginia can't slow down a hot hand. Stojakovic rolled up 23 points on 6-11 shooting and 11-13 free throw shooting for the Bears. He's the sixth player from these power matchups with at least 18 points. Tennessee's Chaz Lanier (26), St. John's' RJ Luis (18), Walter Clayton Jr. (27), SMU's Kario Oquendo (21), and Memphis' PJ Haggerty (27) all did the same. Each of those players either shot 50% overall or from 3-point range.
"We were just going to guard him one on one and hopefully dig the ball out as he starts backing people down from the perimeter. He's obviously a big guard. He's got great touch near the basket. We wanted to make it hard on him. I think he did a really good job of getting to his spots and making tough plays," Sanchez said.
Andrew Rohde's recent run
Much of UVA's offense Wednesday came courtesy of Andrew Rohde, who scored or assisted on 12 of the team's 19 baskets. As noted earlier, he scored 14 points on 6-13 shooting with 6 assists. That continues a solid string of games for the junior.
Rohde has scored in double figures for three straight games on at least 46% shooting. He had 11 points vs. NC State on 4-8 shooting and followed it up with a team-high 16 points vs. Louisville on 6-12 shooting. Considering that he reached the 10-point plateau only once in ACC play last season (10 vs. Syracuse), his play in these recent games has shown a step forward.
Looking at the assists category, Rohde has dished out 3+ in 10 of the 14 games he's played this season. He has 16 total assists over the last three games and currently leads the team with 47 this season. That part of his game translated last season when he transferred into UVA. He had 16 games with 3+ assists a year ago when he finished with 90 helpers.
Rohde has stepped into the main ballhandling role during this recent stretch as Virginia continues to juggle the point guard position. Dai Dai Ames, who did not start at California, logged only 4 minutes. That left a lion's share to Rohde in the backcourt as he logged 33 minutes on the night. He has played 31+ minutes in all four ACC games to date.
"Andrew Rohde did a fantastic job today trying to keep us going," Sanchez said.
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