Late-Season Surge Continues For Hoos

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

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — As the Virginia Cavaliers staggered to a dispiriting defeat against Notre Dame at John Paul Jones Arena, the season seemed to be slipping away from them. That Jan. 25 loss was the sixth in seven games for UVA and dropped the team’s ACC record to 2-7.

Optimism was hard to come by outside the program, but instead of folding, the Wahoos rallied. Since that loss at JPJ, the Hoos have gone 5-3, with four of those victories coming on the road. The latest came Wednesday night at Lawrence Joel Coliseum, where Virginia led for the final 31:08 in an 83-75 victory over Wake Forest.

Other teams might have splintered in the face of adversity, but the Cavaliers pulled together. Taine Murray, the lone senior among UVA scholarship players, said multiple factors have been at play, “I think one of them being how young we were at the start of the season. Obviously, we had lost some key guys [from 2023-24] and brought in some new guys. So I think just throughout the course of the season, we’ve kind of gotten to know how to play with each other more. And I think we’ve made some great adjustments, like tactically in terms of switching [on defense] and different things like that.”

Junior guard Isaac McKneely credited the Cavaliers’ chemistry.

“This is the closest group I’ve ever been with, on and off the court. We hang out together, we spend so much time together, we’re just so close,” McKneely said. “We want to win more than anything in the world, and we want it more for each other than we do ourselves. I think that’s the recipe for success with really good teams. I’m not writing this season off at all. I think we can still do great things in these last few games, and then who knows what can happen in the ACC tournament?”

The 83 points against Wake (19-9, 11-6) were a season high for UVA (14-14, 7-10), which moved into a four-way tie for ninth place in the ACC. The Cavaliers’ execution at the other end of the court left much to be desired—the Demon Deacons shot 55.6 percent from the floor and scored 52 points in the paint—but the visitors’ offense hummed for most of the game.

“The team is playing really unselfish basketball,” interim head coach Ron Sanchez said. “They’re fun to watch offensively. They share the ball well. They play for one another. The guys are playing their roles to a really high level with tremendous buy-in, and I’m just really pleased with their effort on that side, their selflessness and their desire to play for one another.”

Led by McKneely, the Hoos shot 45.5 percent from 3-point range (10 for 22) and 55.8 percent overall (29 for 52). McKneely made 10 of 14 attempts, including 4 of 7 from beyond the arc, and tallied a season-high 27 points. Virginia turned the ball over only eight times.

“It’s really just us playing with freedom,” sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames said. “Coach Sanchez, he gives us a lot of freedom. So we’re playing with freedom, playing together, clicking with each other, getting used to each other. I feel like the more games we play, the more comfortable we get with each other.”

The Cavaliers dominated the first halves of their road wins over Miami, Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech, and they started well again Wednesday night.

“We’re not a team that plays great from behind,” McKneely said. “We don’t really push in transition too much. We don’t get up and down, so it’s hard for us to come back from big deficits. So when we can build a lead early, it’s the flip side. It’s hard for other teams to come back against us.”

Sanchez said: “I’m really happy that the guys started the game the way we did and that we ended it the way we did today.”

Virginia led by 11 points at the half and by nine with 13 minutes to play. The Deacons fought back behind senior guards Hunter Sallis (25 points) and Cameron Hildreth (22 points), however, and trailed by only two with 6:52 remaining. But McKneely scored nine points in the final 6:00 to help the Hoos hold off the Deacons.

When the game got close, “we drew a couple of actions for him,” Sanchez said, “and he delivered to kind of give us some separation. To be able to do that as a marked man on the scouting report, it’s really impressive. So when he’s going, our job is to make sure that we continue to find him and feed him and let him kind of carry the offensive load.”

For the season, McKneely is averaging a team-high 14.3 points, and he’s trending in a positive direction. He’s scored at least 20 in three of the Cavaliers’ past five games.

“He’s been encouraged to shoot the ball,” Sanchez said. “It actually upsets us when he doesn’t. We tell him, ‘Don’t pass up open shots, please.’ He’s a servant, and the way he serves his team is by shooting the ball. When he doesn’t, it kind of goes against his role on the squad.”

McKneely, who had a game-high five assists, said: “I never want to take too many shots. I’m not that kind of guy. I’m definitely an unselfish player, but my team needs me to score. So I’ve been stepping into that role more and more each and every game, just trying to give my team everything I can, and tonight I thought I did that and we came out with the win.”

The Deacons, in their fifth season under head coach Steve Forbes, entered the game with the ACC’s top 3-point defense, but the Cavaliers’ offense consistently produced open looks from the perimeter. Junior forward Elijah Saunders and junior guard Andrew Rohde made two treys apiece, and Ames and Murray had one each.

“Steve does a fantastic job of coaching his kids hard,” Sanchez said. “They play hard on both ends. They’re very physical on both ends. We wanted to just kind of set as many off-ball screens as we could to see if we can create a window for some of our shooters to get shots.”

If the outside shots weren’t there, Sanchez said, the Hoos had other options. “But for the most part, honestly, I think that’s just the way we’ve been playing all season,” he said. “We knew that this was the No. 1 3-point defensive team in the conference, and we knew we were going to have to earn every shot.”

Ames closed the first half with a trey that deflated the Deacons, and he finished with 14 points, his seventh straight game in double figures. Rohde scored 13 points and freshman post player Jacob Cofie added 12 off the bench. For the 6-foot-10 Cofie, it was first game in double figures since Jan. 25, when he scored 17 points against Notre Dame.

The 6-foot-5 Murray was another standout for the Cavaliers. In 23 minutes off the bench, he totaled nine points, four rebounds and three assists. His biggest basket was a stickback that pushed UVA’s lead to 11 with 2:10 remaining.

“Taine’s a fighter,” Sanchez said.

“Taine’s not gonna shock you in the box score,” McKneely said, “but he does so many things for this team that don’t show up. He’s a great passer and an even better teammate and leader.”

The 6-foot-8 Saunders led Virginia with six rebounds and added eight points. He was one of three UVA players to finish the game with four fouls, along with Murray and sophomore center Blake Buchanan. Two other Cavaliers had three fouls each.

“Lots of fouls, obviously,” Murray said. “I think we’ve got to take more pride in our one-on-one matchups.”

Virginia’s most physical post player, 6-foot-10, 250-pound redshirt freshman Anthony Robinson, missed the game with a foot injury. With Robinson unavailable, the foul problems of the Cavaliers’ other big men were magnified.

“It was hard for us, but we found a way,” Sanchez said. “We were faithful to what we had to do, and we did it in a way that didn’t break away from our routine. The guys just played well. I’m just really happy for the guys.”

For the Deacs, the loss was only their third at home this season.

“It’s hard to win here,” Sanchez said, “and that’s a credit to [Forbes] and his program and the quality of basketball that his team plays, but today we played really well and we earned a road win.”

Few of the home fans stuck around until the final horn sounded, and the sight of so many empty seats cheered the Cavaliers.

“Just coming into another building and seeing the fans leaving, taking the energy out of the arena, there’s nothing like it,” McKneely said. “Winning at home is really cool, obviously, but winning on the road feels even better.”

HOMESTAND: Virginia has three regular-season games left, and the next two are at John Paul Jones Arena.

At noon Saturday, UVA hosts No. 13 Clemson, and Murray will be honored in a Senior Day ceremony before the game. His parents and his sister are flying in from New Zealand for the occasion.

Virginia has won four straight over Clemson and leads the series 85-53. The Hoos edged the Tigers 66-65 at Littlejohn Coliseum last season.

At 9 p.m. Tuesday, Virginia meets Florida State at JPJ. UVA closes the regular season March 8 at Syracuse.

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