Virginia Continues Road Success - Takeaways From Win At Boston College

The Virginia basketball team had four road games sandwiched around its home loss to North Carolina. Those road pairs couldn't have looked much differently in terms of flow and feel. They did all look the same in the end, though. UVA notched four wins on those four trips, including Saturday's 73-66 victory at Boston College.

Just how different did the sets of games unfold?

At Louisville and SMU, the Hoos connected on 40.0% of their 3's while allowing only 39.1% shooting and 32 free throw attempts. That led to a 79-70 W at Louisville and a 72-68 W at SMU. The two trips this week required a new tack. Virginia managed just 26.9% shooting on their 3's while allowing 47.3% shooting and 60 free throw attempts, the latter impacted some by a double overtime game. Still, the Cavaliers found a way with a 100-97 victory at Notre Dame and the 7-point win at Boston College.

The latest trips wrapped up the first half of conference play for the Wahoos, who played six of the nine games on the road. They own an 18-3 overall record with a 7-2 mark in ACC play that has included five road wins. In other words, regardless of what it took to push results into the win column, Virginia coach Ryan Odom was pleased that both results landed there again this week.

"Just really proud of the guys," Odom said. "Gritty effort overall. To come away this week with two wins on the road is really, really difficult."

Against the Eagles, the Hoos didn't face a double-digit deficit like Tuesday night's game at Notre Dame but they did still trail at halftime. The 32-27 deficit marked just the third time this season Virginia was behind at the break with two of them coming in the span of five days. The sluggish start showed up on both ends. UVA managed just 36.4% shooting overall (12-33) with a big chunk of that falling coming from behind the 3-point line (2-16). Its defense allowed BC to shoot 50.0% (14-28) with 20 points in the paint at the same time.

Individually, the Hoos' Thijs De Ridder had 6 points in the first half but with only 4 shot attempts while the starting guards Malik Thomas (2) Sam Lewis (0), and Dallin Hall (0) had combined for only 2 points. Chance Mallory and Jacari White helped cover for that with a combined 13 points in the first half, but it didn't seem like the offense was putting much pressure on the Boston College defense. On the other end, the Eagles' Fred Payne had 11 points on 4-7 shooting while Boden Kapke added 9 on 4-5 shooting.

It wasn't hard to spot where the halftime message might have went for Virginia.

After intermission, Virginia flipped the script with 51.6% shooting overall (16-31) with a decreased focus on 3's (2-7). At the same time, the defense held BC to 43.5% shooting overall (10-23) with only 14 points in the paint. Individually, De Ridder got more touches that led to 11 points on 4-6 shooting and 3-4 free throws while the starting guard trio teamed up for 22 points. Defensively, Donald Hand Jr. got going but UVA held Payne to 6 points on 3-11 shooting and Kapke to 5 points on 0-1 shooting.

All told, the shift after time was clear and focused on the way to a win.

"We were 2-16 from 3 so part of the conversation was let's make sure that we're taking the right 3's. Let's don't just shoot 3's to shoot 3's when potentially there might be some drives to the basket," Odom said. "I think in the second half the guys did a nice job of attacking and certainly got fouled some, but also got some baskets going to the rim. We limited how many 3's we took overall. Then defensively, just being better at the point of the screen. We were getting beat at the point of the screen way too easy in the first half and we needed a tougher effort there from our guards and also our bigs."

Here are some additional takeaways from the victory at Boston College.
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Malik Thomas, Thijs De Ridder Deliver With Big Second Half

The biggest beneficiaries of the second half reset proved to be Malik Thomas and Thijs De Ridder for Virginia. Both scored in double figures after halftime as they combined for 23 points.

For Thomas, the first half and second half couldn't have gone much differently. In the first half, the senior guard only made 1 of 5 shots. The make came in the first 2 minutes as he secured the team's first basket on a layup. He also had 2 turnovers with 0 free throw attempts. After halftime, Thomas made 4 of 7 shots with 3 layups in the mix and 1 miss required BC to block a layup attempt at the rim. He also earned 4 free throws, all makes, and committed 0 turnovers.

Thomas finished with 14 points. He has scored in double figures in eight of nine ACC games.

De Ridder's before and after halftime stats also saw an uptick. It didn't show up as much in shot attempts - 4 in the first half, 6 in the second - but it certainly showed up overall. He got more touches with chances to create, especially when Virginia forced a mismatch when Boston College switched defenders on screens. That led to 8 points on 4-6 shooting and 3 points on 4 free throw attempts for a total of 11 points and his only assist in the game. Stat broadcast analytics estimated that De Ridder drew 7.2 fouls.

De Ridder finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He has at least 17 points in four straight games, at least 5 rebounds in five straight games, and at least 4 free throw attempts in eight straight games.

Other Cavaliers also made an impact at the rim in the second half. Sam Lewis had a traditional and-one play on a drive. Ugo Onyenso had 2 dunks and Johann Grünloh had 1 dunk in the second half. Chance Mallory drove and scored on a layup, while Dallin Hall made a reverse layup and earned 2 free throws with a shot fake near the basket too.

Odom said the Hoos needed to try to attack the defense more in the second half.

"There's no question about it," Odom said. "When teams play out and sort of lock out, they're really good at guarding the 3. So we wanted to make sure that our guys got to the basket. You can create contact, sometimes you can get all the way there. Certainly they have a really good shot blocker back there but there were times we were able to get all the way in."

Jacari & Chance

It's been part of the winning formula for Virginia in a lot of games this season, but Saturday afternoon's victory provided another data point. UVA won the bench points category 28-1 over Boston College.

Certainly, a big part of the advantage this season has come from the one-two backcourt punch from Jacari White and Chance Mallory. They have combined for 19.1 points per game this season without a single start between them. That was especially true early in the season when White scored in double figures in seven of his first 11 games, while Mallory did the same in 10 of his first 13 games.

January, however, hadn't seen the same smooth sailing for the duo. White had not hit double figures in his first four games of the month, while Mallory started the month with single digits in four of the first five games.

In White's case, of course, he's been trying to come back from a broken wrist and surgery. That happened against Maryland on Dec. 20 and he missed the next five games on the schedule. While he still didn't get to double digits, his first post-break breakthrough came at Boston College. White tallied 8 points as he made 2 of 3 3-point attempts. That's his first multi-3 game since the injury (he had 9 in the games prior to the fall); he had made 2 of 8 3-pointers in the previous 4 games. White also had 0 turnovers after having 6 turnovers combined in the SMU and UNC games.

"Jacari, he was more like himself," Odom said. "That was the first time he's played like himself since the injury."

Mallory, meanwhile, has responded to his little dip earlier in the month with three straight games in double figures. That included 11 points and 3 assists against North Carolina followed by a career-high 17 points with 3 assists at Notre Dame. He kept it going at Boston College with 11 points and 2 assists. He's been dealing with some shooting hiccups on the road (6-25 on 3's with 3-6 at ND being the lone good game in the batch) and a bad week at the free throw line (6-12 after shooting 83.1% entering the week), but is still making an impact.

"Chance coming off the bench, he's pretty consistent with his play," Odom said.

Ugo's Stretch

Another quiet contributor on Saturday proved to be Ugo Onyenso with Odom noting his good play off the bench as well. He finished with 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots in 24 minutes against Boston College. The senior made 3 of 6 shot attempts and commited only 2 fouls.

That type of efficiency has been normal for Onyenso of late. Over the last six games, Onyenso has made 50.0% or more of his shots, had at least 3 rebounds four times, has blocked multiple shots four times, and committed 2 or fewer fouls five straight times.

Here's the breakdown of this stretch:

• Stanford: 1-2 shooting/5 points, 6 rebounds, 5 blocked shots, 3 fouls
• Louisville: 1-2 shooting/3 points, 3 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 1 foul
• SMU: 4-5 shooting/9 points, 2 rebounds, 1 blocked shot, 0 fouls
• UNC: 4-5 shooting/8 points, 1 rebound, 1 blocked shot, 1 foul
• Notre Dame: 2-3 shooting/4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, 0 fouls
• Boston College: 3-6 shooting/7 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, 2 fouls

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