By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Amid the jubilation, there was also relief for the University of Virginia men’s basketball team Wednesday night at John Paul Jones Arena.
Virginia Tech launched two shots from 3-point range in the final seconds. Had either one dropped, Virginia would have been staring at an excruciating loss. Both missed, however, and the Cavaliers collected a hard-earned 54-52 victory.
“That obviously could have gone either way,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said.
It’s not unusual for UVA to get the better of Tech in this sport. The Wahoos have won five of the past six games in a series they lead 96-57. Still, few would have scripted the storyline that unfolded late Wednesday night at JPJ.
Four nights earlier, in a one-sided loss to North Carolina in Chapel Hill, reserve center Francisco “Papi” Caffaro had contributed two points and zero rebounds in 19 minutes and 8 seconds. Against Virginia Tech, the 7-foot-1, 242-pound redshirt junior from Argentina played the game of his young life, totaling 16 points and nine rebounds, both career highs, in 30-plus minutes off the bench.
“I’m proud of him,” said guard Armaan Franklin, who added 15 points for Virginia (10-6 overall, 4-2 ACC) in its first home game since Dec. 22.
“Papi really played well,” Bennett said. “His physicality was significant, and he was on the glass and then got to the free-throw line when we needed it.”
Caffaro, who came in averaging 3.2 points per game, was 5 for 7 from the floor and 6 for 10 from the line. Moreover, his rugged defense bothered the Hokies’ best player, 6-foot-9 Keve Aluma, who turned the ball over twice in the final two minutes.
With starting center Kadin Shedrick in early foul trouble, Caffaro logged 15 minutes in the first half. He played so well that Bennett started him in the second half.
“The mindset is always the same,” Caffaro said. “Going in, you got to play hard, you got to do your job. So that was pretty much it. You know how Coach is when somebody gets two early fouls: usually you don’t play as much in the first half. So I was obviously ready. I always am ready. But today it was more minutes and I took advantage of it.”
Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young acknowledged that he didn’t expect such a big game from Caffaro. Young added, though, that No. 22 is “a good player. He’s a big, physical young man, and take nothing away. He played really a good ball game.”
This was a tense game with 13 lead changes, 10 of which came in the second half. Twice in the final five minutes the Hokies (8-7, 0-4) opened up a four-point lead, but Virginia conceded nothing. After Aluma’s left-handed layup put Tech up 52-48 with 3:14 remaining, UVA didn’t allow another point.
For much of the night, the Cavaliers opted not to double-team Aluma when the ball came to him down low, but they broke out their signature post-trap late in the game, and the Hokies struggled against it.
“Did Virginia stiffen up, did they play good defense?” said Young, whose team came in averaging 70.5 points per game. “They did. They really did. But I still thought we were able to do some things. I didn’t think it was a matter of they just stumped us. I thought it was a matter of really good Virginia defense that just got the better of us in that particular stretch of the game.”
The Hoos slowly chipped away at their deficit. With 3:01 left, Caffaro sank 1 of 2 free throws to make it 52-49. With 2:20 left, Caffaro scored inside off a nifty pass from forward Jayden Gardner to make it a one-point game, and the volume rose again inside JPJ.
Virginia went ahead to stay on Franklin’s two free throws with 1:31 to play. After a Tech turnover––Aluma slipped and was called for traveling––point guard Kihei Clark went 1 for 2 from the line with 13.5 seconds to play to close out the scoring.
UVA was 3 for 13 from beyond the arc Wednesday night, with Clark, Franklin and sophomore guard Reece Beekman each making one trey. It’s rare in this era for an ACC team to make only three 3-pointers and still prevail, but these Cavaliers lack the firepower of most Bennett-coached teams. They have to rely on defense and opportunistic offense.
“Though not maybe perfect or pretty, that’s who we are,” Bennett said. “And they took a step in the right direction to be as rugged as they could be on both ends of the floor. And both teams played their hearts out.”
Aluma led all scorers with 22 points, but the Cavaliers’ big men made him work for those baskets.
“He’s such a difficult matchup for a number of people,” Young said. “Caffaro and Shedrick did a good job with him and were very physical. I thought it was a little more physical than we’re accustomed to, let’s put it that way.”
Guards Hunter Cattoor and Storm Murphy scored 10 points apiece for the Hokies, and each missed a 3-point attempt in the final five seconds. Murphy’s shot came as time expired after an offensive rebound extended Tech’s final possession. When the ball bounced off the front of the rim, the Hoos could finally exhale.
“It was such a hard-fought game,” said Bennett, whose record against the Hokies is 17-7.
Against North Carolina, the Cavaliers were outrebounded 36-28 and gave up 14 second-chance points. They corrected those errors. UVA outrebounded Tech 31-29 and gave up only two second-chance points Wednesday night.
“It was so much better,” Bennett said, “because that one got away from us in a couple of areas against North Carolina.”