Collective Effort Carries Cavaliers

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Neither Kadin Shedrick nor Armaan Franklin had a game to remember Saturday at Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion. Three nights later, they had more to smile about, as each made a significant contribution in Virginia’s 67-55 victory over ACC foe Boston College at John Paul Jones Arena.

Shedrick, a 6-foot-11 redshirt sophomore, totaled a career-best 13 points, a team-high eight rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot Tuesday night. Franklin, a 6-foot-4 junior who was 2 for 11 from the floor in UVA’s 69-65 loss to Notre Dame, finished with 12 points and three rebounds against BC. On a night when the Cavaliers made only three 3-pointers, Franklin hit two of them.

“I thought they responded well,” UVA head coach Tony Bennett said, “and that’s a good sign.”

The same was true for his team. The Wahoos (13-9 overall, 7-5 ACC) have yet to lose back-to-back games this season, and, after a rough start, they led for the final 25:31 against the Eagles (9-12, 4-7).

“We like to call these blue-collar games,” Bennett said. “It’s going to be physical, and that was the message right before we went out. I said, ‘Give everything you got defensively. This cannot be a lukewarm defensive game.’ ”

The Hoos weren’t perfect on defense, but “we scrapped and played hard,” Bennett said, “and it held us in there until we got a couple tough baskets, and then most of the night, we made them earn their looks.”

That’s Virginia basketball.

“Passion and unity were our mantras today in terms of how we wanted to play,” Bennett said, and he was pleased on both fronts.

“Our offense isn’t always gonna be there,” senior point guard Kihei Clark said, “so we gotta rely on the defensive end. Our defense will keep us in the game most of the time, hopefully, and then the offense will come on. We know shots will fall. We put in the work. The offense is going to come, but the defense always has to be there and keep us in the game.”

Against Bennett’s trademark Pack Line defense, the Eagles turned the ball over 14 times, and UVA turned those mistakes into 20 points. These Cavaliers rarely shoot well from the outside, and they attempted only seven 3-pointers Tuesday night, their fewest in a game in six years. But they made up for that with a big night at the free-throw line. Led by Clark (10 for 10), Virginia made 26 of 29 foul shots.

Clark led all scorers with 19 points, his high for the season. Power forward Jayden Gardner, who was 7 for 7 from the line, added 17 points.

For the season, only Gardner (14.5 ppg) and Franklin (11.8) are averaging in double figures for Virginia, though Clark (9.8) isn’t far off. To have four players score in double figures is “huge for us,” Bennett said. “You can’t have all the weight on your defense. The offense has to help out, and I thought it was a decent balance today, and to get those extra points … at the line and off turnovers was good.”

Clark, who’s 5-foot-10, pulled down six rebounds. The 6-foot-6 Gardner had five boards, two of which came on the same possession late in the game.

“I thought Jayden was padding his stats,” Bennett said, smiling. “They say Moses Malone used to do that: one, two, three offensive rebounds.”

On the sequence in question, Gardner missed a layup, grabbed the rebound, missed another layup, grabbed another rebound and was fouled while converting the stickback. He completed the three-point play to push UVA’s lead to 61-50 with 57.8 seconds to play.

“Man, I just wanted it to go in,” Gardner said with a smile when apprised of Bennett’s comment. “I was frustrated. I kept missing it. I just said, ‘I’m going to keep going up,’ and that’s what I did and I got the and-one, so it was good.”

Virginia’s starting center, 7-foot-1 Francisco Caffaro, left the game midway through the second half after being on the receiving end of a foul that opened a cut near his nose. Caffaro didn’t return but could have played again if needed, Bennett said.

UP NEXT: UVA will be back at JPJ on Saturday to face Miami in a 5 p.m. game to air on ACC Network. This will be the Cavaliers’ latest opportunity to post back-to-back victories for the first time since early last month.

The Hurricanes, whose head coach is former UVA assistant Jim Larranaga, are tied for first in the ACC. Miami (16-5, 8-2) hosts Notre Dame (14-7, 7-3) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The Canes like to spread the floor, and “that puts great pressure on your defense, on your individual on-ball defense, your ball-screen defense, your ability to stop the ball and get to shooters,” Bennett said. “We’ll love the challenge, but it’ll be a great opportunity and a great challenge to be ready.”

Gardner said: “It’s another test for us. It’s going to test us a lot … They really shoot the ball really well. So we have to trust our discipline to get to shooters.”

UVA has won four straight over Miami and leads the series 13-12.

SOUND BITES: Virginia improved to 18-8 all-time against BC, which is in its first season under head coach Earl Grant. The Cavaliers have won nine of the past 10 games in the series. Among the postgame comments Tuesday night:

* Bennett on sophomore guard Reece Beekman, who went scoreless but had seven assists and two steals: “I thought he impacted the game … We actually had a real nice stretch where we separated in the second half with some quality offense. And I thought he was kind of the maestro of that.”

* More Bennett on Beekman: “I like that when a guy can not score and you can say he really played a good game. Not many guys can do that. I couldn’t do that when I was playing.”

* Clark on whether he said anything to Shedrick and Franklin after the Notre Dame game: “They’re players. They know what [the deal] is, how to bounce back. You can’t dwell too much on the past, because we’re in the ACC, and at this [point] anybody can beat anybody, right? So you’ve just got to lock into the next game, forget about the past and try to bounce back strong. That’s what good players do. So I thought they did a really nice job responding today.”

* Bennett on Clark’s leadership: “I thought he came out with great energy, great ball pressure … Sometimes you just look in guys’ eyes and you see their posture and you can tell and you hear it in their voice. And I thought he was terrific that way.”

* Bennett: “We’re trying to chase quality, chase improvement … Just show up and be as tough-minded and as good as we can and keep seeking quality and improvement, and that’s what we’re trying to do. And Kihei is the guy who’s got the experience, so he has to lead us in that regard.”

* Grant on BC’s turnovers: “Fourteen is a lot for us. We typically keep it under 12. So obviously that was a big number, and in a 57-possession game to give away 14 possessions is really hard.”

* Gardner on UVA’s balanced scoring: “It makes us harder to guard, and [the opponent] has to worry about different people. It’s not just one person scoring the ball. When Armaan’s making shots, when Kadin and [Caffaro] are finishing inside and you got Reece slashing and doing different things and Kihei’s on his game, and then me, it’s just hard to stop.”

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