'Hoos Battle Their Way Into Elite Eight
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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – They waited all day and well into the night Thursday, and then they had to endure a 35-minute delay when the game between Purdue and Tennessee went into overtime at the KFC Yum! Center.
By the time the Virginia Cavaliers made it back to their downtown hotel, it was 1:30 a.m. Friday. If they were exhausted, though, they were also elated. After ousting Oregon in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet Sixteen, UVA is a win away from the Final Four.
“I can’t tell you how thankful and excited I am,” head coach Tony Bennett said at his postgame press conference.
In the Elite Eight, Virginia (32-3), the South Region’s No. 1 seed, will meet third-seeded Purdue (26-9) at 8:49 p.m. Saturday in Louisville. A win would send the Cavaliers to the Final Four for the first time since 1984.
“I’d be lying if I said my mind hasn’t wandered there from time to time,” UVA junior guard Kyle Guy said, “but at the same time I’m trying to stay in the moment … I’m just so excited right now.”
Purdue advanced with a 99-94 victory over second-seeded Tennessee in a game that ended at 9:59 p.m. Thursday. The second half of this doubleheader could not have unfolded more differently.
In a game that matched two of the nation’s premier defensive teams, UVA rallied to beat Oregon 53-49. The Cavaliers shot 35.7 percent from the floor; the Ducks, 37.8 percent.
“You hang on and hang your hat on that defense,” Bennett said, “and hopefully you get enough offense. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe it wasn’t great, but I thought it was pretty good looking for us defensively.”
Oregon, seeking to become the first No. 12 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed in NCAA tournament history, appeared to be in position to do so after taking a 45-42 lead with 5:39 to play on forward Louis King’s second straight 3-pointer.
The Wahoos didn’t panic. A trey by the unflappable Kihei Clark, a 5-9 freshman from Los Angeles, made it 45-45, and then the ‘Hoos went ahead to stay on a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer by junior guard Ty Jerome with 3:33 remaining.
Such cold-blooded shots are a Jerome trademark, as teammate Mamadi Diakite noted.
“In those situations, you know, most people will not shoot the ball, because they’re a little nervous,” said Diakite, a redshirt junior. “But that’s not the type of guy he is. He’s very cold. He’s very confident.”
With 27 seconds left, Guy found redshirt sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter alone under the basket for a layup that made it 50-45. Oregon’s only points in the final 5:38 came on free throws in the last 17 seconds. The Ducks (25-13), who entered on a 10-game winning streak, missed their final five shots from the floor and turned the ball over twice late against Virginia’s Pack Line defense.
“I think we played great,” said Hunter, the ACC’s defensive player of the year. “We were communicating, we were scrambling, keeping guys in front, rebounding. We were doing all the things we practice every day. I think those last five minutes just shows how great we can be.”
On a night when each of Virginia’s starters played at least 35 minutes, four of them scored in double figures: Jerome (13 points), Clark (12), Hunter (11) and Guy (10). Jerome also had six rebounds, six assists and two steals. UVA’s fifth starter, the 6-9 Diakite, pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds and also contributed seven points, two steals and two blocked shots.
“We just really want to make sure that, whether we win or lose, we leave it all on the court, and we did that tonight,” Guy said.
Diakite had grabbed nine rebounds, his previous career high, in each of Virginia’s first two games in this NCAA tournament, wins over 16th-seeded Gardner-Webb and ninth-seeded Oklahoma.
“I’m more aggressive,” Diakite said. “I want to win, and whatever it takes to win, that’s what I’m doing. Today I didn’t score 20 points, 25 points, 30 points, but I went for 11 rebounds, and I knew we needed that, because from what I heard, [the Ducks] were going to be very aggressive on the boards, so I was trying to eliminate one of their ways to get us.”
The Ducks start four 6-9 players, and their length gave the Cavaliers’ problems. With about six minutes left in the first half, Virginia was 4 for 21 from the floor and trailed 16-10. But the first of Clark’s three 3-pointers started a 10-0 run, and UVA went into the break up 30-22.
Guy, who this week was named a third-team All-American, has been mired in an uncharacteristic shooting slump during this NCAA tournament. In Virginia’s second-round win over Oklahoma, he was 0 for 10 from 3-point range, and Guy missed his first five shots from beyond the arc against Oregon.
At the 17:24 mark of the second half, however, Guy finally saw a 3-pointer go down. That made it 33-27, and then Clark fed Hunter for a layup to push Virginia’s lead to eight. But the game never became one-sided. Oregon answered with seven straight points, and the teams went back and forth for most of the final 12 minutes.
“It was just kind of a slugfest, it felt like it,” Bennett said, “and it was sort of last man standing.”
Clark, on the biggest stage on which he’s ever played, sparkled. He matched his career highs in points, assists (six) and 3-pointers (three) and played the tenacious defense for which he’s known.
“Just trying to do whatever I can to help my team win, whether it’s playing defense or knocking down the shot,” Clark said.
On offense, this might be the most versatile team on Bennett has had in his 10 seasons at Virginia. Against Oregon, though, little came easily for the Cavaliers at that end of the floor. Their two first-team All-ACC selections, Guy and Hunter, were a combined 8 for 28 from the floor, and Jerome was 5 for 12.
On this night, however, defense saved the ‘Hoos, as it has countless times during Bennett’s tenure.
“We’re in March, and it’s 40-minute territory, as Coach always tells us,” Guy said. “So it helps that we try to stay calm under pressure and that we try to execute and get stops defensively, no matter what the score is or how hectic the game is going. That will always be in our advantage, and we’re going to try to continue to bring that to every game.”
SOUND BITES: With the victory, Virginia set a program record for wins in a season. Among the postgame comments:
* Oregon head coach Dana Altman on his team’s offensive struggles late in the game: “I did a really poor job. We’ve got to get better possessions than that. That’s my job. We got rushed a little bit there and we just had poor possessions. And I told the guys in the locker room, I let them down there … I don’t want to take anything away from Virginia. They make a lot of people take bad shots. But we didn’t handle that very well.”
* Guy on seeing a couple of 3-pointers drop: “Felt great. Any time I can get Ty or Kihei an assist, I think they always appreciate that. So I’m going to keep shooting. I don’t really feel like I’m ever out of rhythm. So as long as they have confidence in me, I’ll always have confidence in myself.”
* UVA forward Braxton Key on Guy: “Kyle’s confident. He’s a shooter. Shooters are going to shoot. He doesn’t care. If you told him he missed 16, he’d be, ‘OK, well, I’ll shoot the next one.’ That’s the kind of confidence you’ve got to have and speaks volumes about him as a player individually.”
* Jerome on advancing to the Elite Eight: “It’s just another opportunity to play with these guys and play for Coach Bennett and the rest of the coaches … I’m pretty sure it’s going to be an amazing environment. So it’s just the game you dream of as a kid.”