RALEIGH, N.C. - Virginia escaped its trip to the house that the big, bad Wolfpack built on Saturday night, but only by the hair of its chiny-chin-chin.
When it came down to Crunch Time, the difference was defense, particularly on the last play of the game when North Carolina State’s last-second comeback was foiled.
Having made only four field goals the entire second half and watching a 10-point lead evaporate over the final six-and-a-half minutes, Virginia sat in its huddle wondering what State might do to win the game with 7.8 seconds remaining. The Cavaliers were clinging to a 61-60 lead and the Wolfpack would inbound the ball with a chance to win.
“When you only have seven seconds, there’s only so much you can do,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said after surviving the close call.
In the ACC, where everyone knows every opponents peccadillos, there’s little second-guessing. Bennett figured State would aim its attack in the lane. UVa guard Jontel Evans said he knew Wolfpack guard Lorenzo Brown would get the ball so that he could either create for others or take the final shot himself.
They were both correct.
Brown received the ball, and with the help of a ball screen, tried to turn the corner for the expected penetration. What State didn’t count on was Akil Mitchell’s hustle in picking up Brown and staying with him until Evans recovered from the screen and was back in Brown’s grill in no time.
“Akil did a great job of making [Brown] dribble out so I could get back on him,” Evans said. “Once I did that, I bodied up on [Brown]. I didn’t gamble or reach, but made him take a tough shot off balance.”
Having been nudged out past the 3-point line, Brown’s shot grazed the rim as time expired. The rest, as they say, is history.
Virginia improved to 17-3 overall, 4-2 in the ACC and perhaps equally impressive, the Cavaliers are 5-1 on the road, the program’s most true road wins since 2000-01.
“I’m very thankful for [17-3],” Bennett said afterward. “We’re a team that has a fine line. Our guys have battled hard. There’s not a lot of separation in college basketball this year. In this league, it’s a battle every time out, so to come out on a positive end on a lot of close ones is good.
“Always thankful, but never satisfied,” Bennett said.
Thankful indeed.
The coach mentioned that when he reviews tape of this game that it will be a head scratcher. How did Virginia get dominated on the boards (42-25), shoot a mere 22.2 percent in the second half, make only four field goals in that half, with its last one coming with 8:20 to play (a Joe Harris trey) and still beat an aggressive, almost desperate Wolfpack team on its home floor with more than 17,000 red and white partisans cheering them on?
Bennett’s boys won it from the free throw line (13 of 19 the second half) and with sheer grit against perhaps the most talented offensive team Virginia has faced this season.
The fact the Cavaliers held State’s Scott Wood, the ACC’s leading 3-point shooter, to eight points - three of those coming on a late trey that drew the Pack within one at the end - was crucial. So was keeping him off the line. Wood, who now holds the conference’s all-time consecutive free throw streak with 58 in a row, didn’t get a single opportunity at the stripe.
Bennett was probably relieved that his team managed to slow down the pace in the second half. The Virginia coach, more accustomed to a game in the 50s, must have felt he was on a rocket ride the first half as the Cavaliers led 38-31 at the break.
Of course, UVa’s 60 percent shooting that half didn’t hurt as Sammy Zeglinski continued to put his slump behind him, going 4-for-5 from Bonusphere and finished with 12 points as did Harris, just behind Mike Scott’s 18.
It didn’t hurt that Virginia has been accustomed to playing close games at a more deliberate pace and has managed a good job of surviving on the road.
Scott, a fifth-year senior, remembered how past Cavalier teams struggled when they left Charlottesville’s city limits, having gone 8-26 on the ACC road the previous four seasons.
This season alone, UVa has scored road wins at Oregon, LSU, Georgia Tech and N.C. State, and made Duke sweat before that one was settled.
“It was a big crowd and they were certainly loud,” Bennett said of his latest great escape. “I think the experience of being in some settings on the road and having some veteran guys certainly helped. Crowds can take you out of the game.”
When everything was on the line, though, Mitchell, who has been asked to elevate his game since the injury of senior center Assane Sene 10 days ago, continued to deliver.
Perhaps the least heralded of Bennett’s first six-man recruiting class, predicted by some to be the one guy most likely to leave, is one of only two remaining (along with Harris). While the others have exited for anticipated greener pastures, Mitchell has remained true and buckled down to improve his game.
When it mattered most against the Wolfpack, the sophomore from Charlotte, the kid that none of the state’s Big Four even considered, stepped up with a crucial defensive moment that preserved the Wahoo win.
“I thought Akil did a terrific job of taking Brown out of the play,” Bennett said. “He didn’t let him turn the corner and that allowed us to get into our defense.”
Mitchell, who had to leave the game in the first half when he landed on Harris’ foot and had to be taped up before returning, said that State was “really physical, I mean borderline dirty … I’ll go so far as to say that. They have a big, athletic team and kind of beat us up on the boards.”
Still, Virginia avoided serious foul trouble and hung on.
“On the road you try to steal ‘em and that’s what we did,” Bennett said as he walked out of the RBC Center with one less to worry about.
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