Buchanan Takes Step Forward in Painful Defeat

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — SMU’s starting center is a behemoth who stands 7-foot-2 and weighs 265 pounds. Matched against Samet Yiğitoğlu for much of the game Wednesday night was Virginia sophomore Blake Buchanan, who was giving up three inches and about 40 pounds.

Buchanan didn’t back down.

“Can’t say enough about Blake,” UVA guard Ishan Sharma said as midnight approached at John Paul Jones Arena. “He was a warrior today.”

Inconsistency has marked Buchanan’s second season as a Cavalier, and he hasn’t started since Dec. 12. But he played 26 minutes and 56 seconds Wednesday night—the most for him since Nov. 21—and posted his first double-double.

With 11 points (on 5-for-7 shooting), Buchanan matched his season high, and his 15 rebounds were six more than his previous best. He also blocked two shots and had two assists.

“My hopes are that that’s who Blake is from here on out,” said Ron Sanchez, Virginia’s interim head coach.

In a Hollywood script, Buchanan would have been celebrating at the end of his career performance. Instead, he and his teammates trudged off the floor at JPJ. After missing 16 of its first 18 shots from 3-point range, SMU made three treys in the final 25 seconds to secure a stunning 54-52 win.

After senior wingman Taine Murray, who’d replaced Sharma moments earlier, missed two free throws with 7.4 seconds left, SMU rebounded. After crossing midcourt, the Mustangs called time out with 4.1 seconds remaining to set up a final play. Guard Boopie Miller, whose first 3-pointer had cut Virginia’s lead to 52-51, hit another one with four-tenths of a second left to silence the boisterous crowd at JPJ. The loss was the fourth straight for the Cavaliers (8-9 overall, 1-5 ACC).

“We’re in a rough stretch right now,” Buchanan said.

After giving up 75 points to Cal and 88 to Stanford on its West Coast swing last week, Virginia faced an SMU team that came to Charlottesville averaging 84.7 points per game. The Mustangs’ abysmal outside shooting for most of the night contributed to their season-low output, but the Wahoos’ improved defense was a major factor too.

“Our message at the pregame was, ‘Let’s come back to the locker room having exhausted every ounce of energy. We’re going to draw the line defensively and we’re not going to retreat,’ ” Sanchez said.

After the game, he told his players they’d succeeded on that front. “I know it’s not on the scoreboard and it’s not a victory, but all we can do is control our effort and our energy,” Sanchez said at his postgame press conference. “And to be in a game against a team that’s that gifted offensively, with two of our leading scorers not performing to their standard, to me is definitely a step in the right direction with this group.”

The Hoos shot 34.6 percent overall and a season-low 15.4 percent from 3-point range, largely because of the struggles of junior guards Isaac McKneely and Andrew Rohde. Each finished 1 for 9 overall and 0 for 6 from beyond the arc. That ended McKneely’s streak of 33 consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer.

“They’re very hard to guard, and those guys are terrific players,” SMU head coach Andy Enfield said. “So I thought our players did a great job of trying to just make it hard for them to get open looks.”

Buchanan’s contributions nearly saved the Hoos. He totaled nine points and 10 boards in the second half.

Not until the 10:15 mark of the second half did the Cavaliers collect their first offensive rebound, but No. 0 asserted himself at that end of the court late. During the 12-0 run that put Virginia up 50-45, Buchanan grabbed two offensive rebounds and threw down a dunk off a lob pass from Rohde.

Those rebounds “almost won the game for them,” Enfield said when asked about Buchanan. “I thought it may be his best game of the year. I don’t know, I haven’t watched every game that they played, but give him a lot of credit. He’s improving and he played terrifically against us tonight.”

Yiğitoğlu, a freshman from Turkey, finished with 10 points, six rebounds and one block in 30-plus minutes. At times he overpowered the Cavaliers’ post players, but Buchanan battled on every possession.

“I’m really proud of Blake today,” Sanchez said. “His effort was fantastic, even when he was tired. The guy doesn’t only tower over him with inches, but he also has a tremendous amount of weight over him … If we can continue to get that effort from Blake, I think Blake will enjoy his second year. I’m hoping that this is the turn for him.”

The Cavaliers’ strategy against Yiğitoğlu was to “just be aggressive,” Buchanan said. They reviewed the film of their loss to SMU in Dallas last month and saw where Yiğitoğlu had been most effective.

“I thought we prepared well,” Buchanan said. “We came in the game with a good game plan on what we need to do with him. And my mindset, I was like, I’m just gonna go try to dunk everything, be as aggressive as I can, try to get him in foul trouble, see what happens, and just go from there.”

For the season, Buchanan is averaging 5.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. To build on his breakthrough performance, Buchanan said, he needs “to keep being aggressive.”

Rebounding has been a significant weakness for Virginia this season, and Sanchez challenged his post players to improve on the boards. “I think me getting rebounds obviously helps out the team tremendously,” Buchanan said.

The only other Cavalier to score in double figures Wednesday night was the 6-foot-5 Sharma, one of the team’s two freshmen (along with 6-foot-10 Jacob Cofie). Sharma’s contested 3-pointer tied the game at 45-45 with 2:52 left, and twice in the final 33 seconds he went to the line and coolly hit both ends of a one-and-one. He finished with 10 points.

“It’s just fun,” Sharma said of his late-game performance. “It’s fun to play. Great atmosphere, ACC game, you dream of things like that. And so why not just step into the opportunity? And honestly, when I’m out there, I feel like I’m not really thinking of anything. I’m just playing basketball at the end of the day.”

Sharma, who’s from Ontario, appeared unflappable in his 18:20 off the bench. “I think he’s one of those guys who has a tremendous amount of competitive juice in him,” Sanchez said. “I think he wants those moments. He works so hard. I was thrilled to see him out there.”

The Hoos are off to their worst start in ACC play since 2007-08, and “I’m hurting for the guys, I am,” Sanchez said, “because I think that they deserved this one, especially after coming off the road on a tough, tough road trip and being able to muster the energy [to shine defensively].”

As UVA prepared to host SMU, Sanchez “drew a line,” Buchanan said. “He was like, ‘This is it, this is where we need to be, this is what we have to do.’ And I thought we started off a little slow, and then we kind of got that competitive fire and the crowd got behind us. It was a good environment. We just let it slip away.”

UP NEXT: The Cavaliers, who played two games in California last week, are back on the road this weekend. In a noon game to air on ESPN2, Virginia meets Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday.

Louisville (13-5 overall, 6-1 ACC) is the league’s hottest team. The Cardinals stretched their winning streak to seven games Tuesday night with an 85-61 win over Syracuse at the JMA Wireless Dome.

This will be UVA’s second meeting with Louisville in two weeks. The Cardinals defeated the Hoos 70-50 at JPJ on Jan. 4. Louisville outrebounded Virginia 42-25 in that game.

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