By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
RALEIGH, N.C. — Coming off a triple-overtime game that included 21 lead changes, No. 21 Virginia made sure there was no such drama Saturday at the Lenovo Center.
The Cavaliers never trailed in a 76-61 win, and NC State, apart from a stretch that enlivened the red-clad fans early in the second half, never was especially competitive in its second straight ACC home game. UVA (12-2 overall, 1-1 ACC) led by 20 points at the half and by 27 with 6:20 to play—a resounding response to a painful defeat in Blacksburg, Va.
“Our guys were obviously disappointed with our effort at Virginia Tech and wanted to just play better, and you never know how that’s gonna go,” Ryan Odom said after his first ACC win as Virginia’s head coach. “After a tough defeat like that, sometimes it can snowball on you.”
That wasn't the case this time. Against the Hokies, the Wahoos made only 10 of 45 shots from 3-point range. They returned to form against NC State (10-5, 1-1), hitting 13 of 33 from long range.
“They’re great shooters,” Wolfpack guard Paul McNeil Jr. said.
Nobody shot better than junior swingman Sam Lewis, a transfer from Toledo who made a game-high five treys and led all scorers with 23 points, eight more than his previous high as a Cavalier. The 6-foot-7 Lewis, who rang up 23 points three times for Toledo, went scoreless in 23-plus minutes off the bench against Virginia Tech on Wednesday. Back in the starting lineup Saturday, he scored 20 first-half points on 7-for-8 shooting.
“It was great to see Sam get back to himself,” said senior guard Malik Thomas, who added 13 points for the Cavaliers.
Lewis said he focused on “just being myself, being confident in the role I have with the team. Coach believed in me, so I’ve just got to go out and do the best I can for my teammates. And today, that's what I did.”
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Ten players have scored in double figures at least once this season for Virginia, which is averaging 86.2 points per game.
“We don't always have a first option, quite honestly,” Odom said. “Certainly we run plays for specific guys at times, but it's more about moving the ball. The ball will find you and it's your turn, and Sam was ready tonight. His teammates found him and he knocked it down. We have tremendous confidence in Sam and his ability to make shots and make the right play.”
The game matched two programs with new leaders: Odom for UVA and Will Wade for NC State. Each is a former head coach at VCU.
For the Cavaliers, it was their first 11 a.m. contest since March 2013, when they defeated St. John’s 68-50 at John Paul Jones Arena in the National Invitation Tournament’s second round.
The early start didn’t bother Virginia on Saturday, either.
“The theme of this game for us was just being disciplined,” Odom said. “In our last game, we were not as disciplined as we needed to be, and it bit us in a multitude of ways. And I thought our guys did a nice job of forcing some misses and being disciplined early in the game to block out and come up with rebounds so that we didn't have to face their [full-court] press the entire first half. And I think that was certainly helpful for us getting off to a good start. And the confidence just kind of kept brewing from there, growing from there, and our guys continued on.”
UVA led 40-20 at the break. That was by far the fewest points in a half this season for the Pack, who came in averaging 88.3 per game and shooting 49.1% from the floor. Not only was the Cavaliers’ defense stout, so was their rebounding. They outrebounded State 36-24 and limited the Wolfpack to eight second-chance points.
The 6-foot-5 Thomas pulled down a season-high seven boards, and 6-foot-9 forward Thijs De Ridder and 6-foot-4 guard Dallin Hall had six apiece.
Rebounding was a major point of emphasis for the Hoos as they prepared to face the Wolfpack.
“We talked about our ability to force misses,” Odom said, “and our guys have done that all year. Our two-point field goal percentage has been really good. Our 3-point percentage defense has been really good. But teams get to the free throw line [against UVA], and some of that is a function of us not being disciplined enough, consistently enough, to be physical and hit people to then come up with rebounds. And so we can't go out like that. We have to be a team that's gonna be physical, that's gonna defensive rebound, because that really helps our offense when we're able to do that.”
State made things interesting for a while early in the second half. After De Ridder scored to make it 42-20, the Wolfpack ran off 11 straight points, to the delight of the home fans in the crowd of 16,144. The Pack kept coming, cutting its deficit to eight with 14:38 to play, but the Cavaliers regained their composure and regained control of the game.
“Good teams like NC State are bound to make runs,” Thomas said. “They're a good team that's talented offensively, so it was bound to happen. We’ve just got to stay composed, stay as a unit.”
A 12-4 run that included seven points by forward Devin Tillis pushed UVA’s lead to 58-42, and a 16-5 run followed. “I think the response was excellent,” Odom said.
The keys, he said, were “being connected, defending a little bit better, taking care of the ball.”
During the Pack’s comeback, the Hoos were often “a little bit casual with the ball,” Odom said. “The ball gets knocked out of our hands, and all of a sudden it ends up in a layup. We almost have a layup and it gets knocked out. And we had several of those to start the second half. And we knew they were going to come at us.”
A State fan sitting courtside, clearly pleased with his wit, several times taunted UVA players by yelling, “How ‘bout those Hokies?”
The Cavaliers disregarded such comments and concentrated on putting away the Wolfpack. If Lewis dominated the first half, the story of the second half was the play of De Ridder. No. 28 scored 12 of his 14 points and grabbed all six of his rebounds after intermission to help hold off the Pack.
Odom said he looks for players who are “confident in their own ability and believe in themselves and can rise to the occasion, and certainly Thijs in [the second half] was great around the basket, driving, and he had a 3, an offensive rebound. He was just making winning plays, and that's what we need him to do.”
With 16:41 remaining, after Odom protested what he considered a blown call by the officiating crew, he was assessed a technical foul. That contributed to a four-point possession for State that cut UVA’s lead to nine.
“I was just irritated at quite a few things at that point,” Odom said, “irritated at my team, irritated [at the officials], and I shouldn't do that. That shouldn't be something that I do, but the guys responded ... Officials are gonna miss calls at times, and they own up to that. We have to own up to it when we make mistakes as coaches and players, and it's just part of the game. But our guys needed a jolt of energy there, and I think they did a nice job of responding.”
Thomas smiled when asked about Odom's technical. "Of course we don’t want to watch Coach getting teed up, but it’s all good," Thomas said. "It’s a part of the game ... If anything bad happens, we just do it together as a team where we all got each other's back.”