Cavaliers Rally for Gritty Win Over Northwestern at Greenbrier Tip-Off

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

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Through its first four games, the UVA men’s basketball team did not trail for a single second. It was inevitable, though, that the Cavaliers would face adversity, and that happened Friday night in the Skechers Greenbrier Tip-Off.

They didn’t flinch. After falling behind by seven points midway through the first half, Virginia steadied itself and took a four-point lead into intermission. Then it was Northwestern’s turn to take control. The Wildcats scored 19 points in the first five minutes of the second half to take a 55-48 lead.

Once again, the Wahoos battled back. They went ahead to stay with 3:56 remaining and went on to secure an 83-78 victory in a ballroom that, for this event, has been converted into a gym. In front of a crowd dominated by their fans, the Hoos (5-0) went 9 for 10 from the line in the final 61 seconds to hold the Wildcats (4-1) at bay.

Northwestern was the first Power 4 opponent on Virginia’s schedule, and head coach Ryan Odom never expected another blowout.

“We knew it was going to be a big-time battle,” Odom said, and that proved to be the case.

“I think it was just a great college basketball game all around,” Odom said. “It was back and forth, had a lot of drama, with players making big-time plays throughout. It was a really physical game. And it was back and forth, which you really want.

“The crowd, obviously, was a pro-Virginia crowd and really helped us and gave us a lift multiple times throughout. But I’m really proud of the guys.”

The game lasted about two-and-a-half hours, largely because the officials called 51 fouls. Virginia’s most productive players were forward Thijs De Ridder and guard Chance Mallory, and both fouled out.

“And then for our guys to still figure out a way to win the game was really impressive,” Odom said.

UVA lost the 6-foot-9 De Ridder with 5:44 to play, and he left with a season-high 26 points and eight rebounds. He’s averaging a team-high 19.0 points per game.

“The coaching staff on my team has given me this confidence,” De Ridder said, “and I just went at it like always.”

De Ridder carried the Cavaliers early, totaling 17 points and seven rebounds in the first half.  “He was just a beast,” Odom said.

So was Mallory, a 5-foot-10 freshman. Before picking up his fifth foul with 1:40 remaining, No. 2 contributed 16 points, eight boards and two steals.

“He had more rebounds than anyone on our team, and he’s one of the smallest guys on the floor,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Collins, a former Duke standout.

Mallory started Virginia’s second-half surge with an NBA-length 3-pointer that cut Northwestern’s lead to 55-51.

Before the game, Mallory said, UVA’s scouting report had highlighted the Wildcats’ physicality. “They’re a very physical team, as Coach said, so we had to match it. We didn’t want to match, we wanted to be the first ones to do it, but that’s not what happened, so we had to match their physicality, and once we did that and we started moving the ball, pushing the pace, I feel like that’s what really started to kick-start our run.”

In the Cavaliers’ first four games, which they won by an average of 29.3 points, they shot 50% percent from the floor and 38.8% from 3-point range. They were off the mark Friday night—the Hoos shot only 37.5% from the floor and 20.8% from beyond the arc—but found other ways to hurt Northwestern.

Virginia outrebounded the Wildcats 49-25. Twenty-one of UVA’s rebounds came on the offensive glass.

“That was the story of the game tonight,” Collins said.

After a quiet first half, UVA guard Dallin Hall asserted himself when his team needed him most. His first 3-pointer put Virginia up 63-61 with 9:19 left. His second trey, set up by Malik Thomas’ pass, barely beat the shot clock and stretched the Hoos’ lead to 74-71 with 2:28 to play.

Hall went 5 of 6 from the line down the stretch and finished with 11 points.

Odom said that after the game he told Hall, a graduate transfer from BYU, that “needs to be confident in himself, because he’s so good. And when he’s tentative, sometimes he hurts himself. And I thought to watch him snap out of it was really gratifying for me and his teammates.”

The game marked the UVA debut of forward Devin Tillis, a graduate transfer from UC Irvine who’s coming off knee surgery. Tillis played six scoreless minutes off the bench Friday night.

The 6-foot-7 Tillis “didn’t have the benefit of playing maybe in some of these other games where you know he could be his feet wet and play,” Odom said.

Tillis will get back into game shape, though, and “certainly we know we’re going to need him long term as we begin to go about the season,” Odom said.

UP NEXT
At 2 p.m. Sunday, UVA (5-0) hosts Butler (4-1) at The Greenbrier. The game will air on CBS Sports Network.

In the first game Friday, Butler defeated South Carolina 79-72.

Virginia and Butler have met only once in men’s basketball: on March 19, 2016. In the second round of the NCAA tournament, the Cavaliers edged the Bulldogs 77-69 in Raleigh, N.C.

UVA guard Jacari White, a graduate transfer from North Dakota State, has faced Butler more recently. He made a career-high seven 3-pointers last season in the Bison’s 71-68 upset of Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

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