Hoos' Interior Dominance Not Enough in Road Loss

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

NOTRE DAME, Ind. –– University of Virginia head coach Tony Bennett usually prefers to reserve judgment on his team’s performance in a game until he’s had an opportunity to review the videotape. On Saturday night, however, the box score told Bennett nearly everything he needed to know about one aspect of UVA’s 69-65 loss at Purcell Pavilion.

Notre Dame made 10 of 23 shots from 3-point range. Virginia hit only three 3-pointers (out of 14 attempts).

“That’s hard, when there’s that much discrepancy,” Bennett said at his postgame press conference “There’s a lot of points there … 3 for 14 and 10 for 23 certainly is a mismatch that way.”

The Fighting Irish (14-6, 7-2), who are tied for second in the ACC, won for the 10^th time in 11 games. They have two of the nation’s top 3-point shooters in seniors Dane Goodwin and Nate Laszewski, and both hurt the Cavaliers (12-9, 6-5). For the game, they were a combined 7 for 11 from beyond the arc. In a two-and-a-half minute stretch of the second half, Goodwin hit two treys and Laszewski made another one to help Notre Dame open up a 15-point lead.

Virginia didn’t fold. The Wahoos cut their deficit to seven with 8:18 remaining, to four with 3:07 to play, to three with 14.2 seconds left, and to two to 4.9 seconds remaining.  But Notre Dame guard Prentis Hubb sank two free throws with 4.2 seconds left, and the Cavaliers’ six-game winning streak in the series was over.

The Irish shoot about 42 percent from 3-point range, to UVA’s 33 percent. The Hoos knew coming in that they had to challenge Notre Dame on the perimeter. At times they did so, but on other possessions the Cavaliers left good shooters open.

“A couple of times we broke down in some communication things that were pretty straightforward,” Bennett said, “and those were costly.”

Notre Dame made 7 of 8 shots from the line in the final minute to hold off UVA. Trailing 65-62, the Hoos applied full-court pressure and nearly forced a turnover in the backcourt. But Cormac Ryan, trapped by two defenders, alertly threw the ball toward the other end of the court. Goodwin won a foot race with UVA’s Kody Stattmann for the ball and, after Stattmann fouled him, calmly sank two free throws.

“That was a big possession,” Bennett said.

The Cavaliers have not lost back-to-back games this season, and that speaks to their resilience. But they haven’t won back-to-back games since early this month, and that speaks to their inconsistency.

Virginia starts three guards: sophomore Reece Beekman, senior Kihei Clark and junior Armaan Franklin, a transfer from Indiana University who attended high school in Indianapolis, about 100 miles south of South Bend.

The 6-foot-4 Franklin, whose aunt Coquese Washington is associate head coach of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team, made only 2 of 11 shots from the floor Saturday night and turned the ball over three times.

Beekman and Clark fared better. The 6-foot-3 Beekman finished 13 points, the final two coming on a dunk that cut the Irish’s lead to 65-62 with 14.2 seconds left. The 5-foot-10 Clark had a rough first half, recording three turnovers and no points, but he scored 12 points and didn’t turn the ball over after intermission. Clark also had a team-high six assists.

On a night when the Cavaliers’ outside shots rarely fell, the interior work of power forward Jayden Gardner and center Francisco “Papi” Caffaro stood out. Virginia finished with 14 second-chance points, to none for Notre Dame, in large part because of their work on the backboards. Led by Gardner and Caffaro, UVA out rebounded Notre Dame 39-26.

The 6-foot-6 Gardner, a transfer from East Carolina, scored a game-high 22 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and came up with two steals.

“That’s certainly a good stat line,” Bennett said, “and we were finding some mismatches at times and the soft spots [in Notre Dame’s defense], whether it was a zone or man-to-man and he was aggressive. So I thought he did a good job. He had his hands full tonight, having to guard [a talented shooter], whether it was Laszewski or Goodwin, and then at times we switched, and I thought he slid well … The tape won’t lie and all that, but I thought he did take a step in the right direction and gave us some great effort. I thought he and Papi in the second half established themselves and did some good things.”

Double-doubles are nothing new for Gardner, who’s had five as a Cavalier, but Caffaro recorded the first of his career Saturday night. The 7-foot-1 native of Argentina scored 11 points and grabbed a career-best 12 rebounds to go with two steals, also a career high, and an assist.

For the season, Caffaro is averaging 4.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, but those modest numbers belie the impact he’s made recently, especially as a rebounder. Since moving into the starting lineup after posting a career-best 16 points and nine boards in a win over Virginia Tech, Caffaro has averaged 7.6 rebounds per game.

“He’s being more assertive, trusting his hook shot, being a good teammate, rebounding, being more vocal,” Gardner said. “I think he’s confident. He’s trusting himself more, and we love to see that in Papi. He’s doing things that we knew he could do all along, and he’s just showing that he belongs out here.”

To Bennett, it’s no secret why No. 22’s game is on the rise. Caffaro has been putting in extra work at John Paul Jones Arena.

“I think it’s been almost 20-some plus days where he’s gotten extra time,” Bennett said, “and usually there’s a correlation there. When you work hard at something, maybe it doesn’t happen right away, but you just slowly improve, and you gotta attack improvement that way.

“You gotta be smart in the season, but I like his mindset. I’m seeing that with most of the guys. That’s not a diss on anyone else, but he’s getting after it. And, again, if you want to be good and master something and you have areas that are not strong, then go after it and work and don’t be afraid of work. Some guys are afraid of work, and he hasn’t been lately. And so I like that.”

Caffaro said: “Sometimes you come to a realization with yourself [that there are] things you’ve got to start doing better … and those things are now showing results.”

FACES IN THE CROWD: Purcell Pavilion’s official capacity is 9,149, and the arena was nearly full Saturday night. The student section was packed, and most of the other fans in the announced crowd of 8,495 were pulling for the Irish, too, but there were pockets of UVA supporters.

Among those in attendance were former UVA forward Andrew Kennedy, who lettered for head coach Terry Holland in the mid-1980s; incoming recruit Leon Bond, who’s from Milwaukee; and two of the program’s former student-managers: Mikey Carpenter and Marcus Conrad.

UP NEXT: Nine regular-season games remain for UVA, and five of them are at JPJ, starting Tuesday. In a 6 p.m. game that will air on ACC Network, Virginia hosts Boston College (8-11, 3-6).

The Cavaliers have won eight of the teams’ past nine meetings and lead the series 17-8.

BC, which is in its first season under head coach Earl Grant, is tentatively scheduled to meet Pittsburgh on Sunday in Chestnut Hill, Mass. That game was supposed to have been played Saturday but was postponed because of bad weather in New England.

SOUND BITES: The loss was only the third for the Cavaliers in 19 all-time meetings with the Irish. Bennett’s record against Notre Dame is 12-2. Among the postgame comments Saturday night:

* Bennett on the challenge of defending the Irish: “They’re a very good offensive team. They’re hard to guard. They hit some timely baskets, and they put pressure on you with their ability to touch the paint and then certainly stretch it at four or five spots, and I think what hurt us at times was some miscommunication.”

* Bennett: “I didn’t like being down 15, but good that we came back.”

* Notre Dame post player Paul Atkinson Jr., a graduate transfer from Yale, on Virginia’s dominance of the series: “That was definitely something that was mentioned beforehand. Everybody knew about that.”

* Hubb on the foul shots that sealed the Irish’s victory: “I got ice in my veins. I’m going to make those shots when it counts … [Goodwin] told me just go ahead and make these free throws so we can get out of here.”

* Caffaro on the importance of playing good perimeter defense against the Irish: “It’s everything … That’s what we worked on, and they still managed to do [shoot well] again.”

* Caffaro on Virginia’s comeback: “Nobody likes to lose, but happy that we were able to fight back and keep it to a one-possession game close to the end. It didn’t go our way, and that’s always going to hurt a little bit, but happy that we got to be back in the game.”

* Gardner on his double-double: “Personally, I feel in a good rhythm right now with the game. I’m just ready to get back out there. These opportunities to play ACC competition on the road is stuff you can’t take for granted. I’m just starting to get back in the groove, so it’s good to see.”

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