No. 7 Virginia Falls Short, 66-65, at Duke

DURHAM, N.C. – No. 7 Virginia (15-5, 11-3 ACC) fell 66-65 at Duke (10-8, 8-6 ACC) on Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Virginia was leading with just over three minutes to play but suffered a scoring drought in the final three minutes to fall on the road. Jay Huff (Durham, N.C.) led UVA with 20 points and 12 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Sam Hauser (Stevens Point, Wis.) added 19 points and eight boards and Kihei Clark (Woodland Hills, Calif.) had 15 points.

Virginia shot 50 percent from the floor and 45.5 percent from three, while Duke shot 51 percent and 39.1 percent beyond the arc. UVA led 34-24 in points in the pain, but Duke had 14 fast break points to two for the Cavaliers.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke jumped out quickly to open the game. Hauser hit a jumper and followed that with a three to give UVA its first lead at the 15:29 mark in the first half. UVA held the edge until Duke went back in front with 6:48 to go in the first half. A Hauser three cut it to one, 37-36, with 43 seconds left in the half, but Duke took a 39-36 lead into the break.

The Cavaliers had a 6-0 run, all by Huff, to start the second half and go ahead 42-39. The teams saw seven ties in the second half. UVA was able to stay in the lead each time and was leading 65-62 with 3:09 to play. Duke hit a jumper and added a layup to take the lead with 1:59 remaining as neither team was able to score in the final two minutes.

FROM HEAD COACH TONY BENNETT

On last three minutes:

“I can’t remember when Kihei (Clark) hit the three, that was a big hit. They switched everything and ball screens, off-ball screens, so you had to make some plays with the floorspace, and we were unaware of the shot clock at times and that was frustrating. The last play, they missed that free throw, it was broken, and we were like, ‘if they miss it attack, get to the rim.’ We were in the bonus and I was hoping we could get into the lane, and either get one up and rebound, flip it to Sam (Hauser) or someone trailing. No, we didn’t get great, they stepped up their defense. It comes down a lot of times to making plays late. You have to be able to bounce up, hit a shot. Casey missed that separate shot, he had (Matthew) Hurt on him. He hit a couple of those, I think that was an okay shot. They just were skin-tight, and there wasn’t a, I’ll look at the film, I wish we could have gotten a couple better looks and cleaned up some of the turnovers or the block shots. There’s just sometimes it’s drawing and kicking and making the decision but to not score last few minutes was tough. I thought Jay (Huff), when he got the rebound, I thought there was one where he could have gone back up. I think he kicked it out. Because shots were hard to come by late.”

NOTES

• UVA shot 60 percent in the first half, but trailed 39-36
• UVA outrebounded Duke 32-22
• Huff matched a career high with 12 rebounds
• Huff has reached double figures in 15 games
• Hauser has reached double figures in 18 games
• Clark tied a career high with three steals
• Clark reached double figures for the 12th time

UP NEXT

Virginia will host NC State on Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.