Virginia holds off Wolfpack comeback for overtime win, 59-53. It wasn’t pretty
There was little or no finesse Wednesday as N.C. State took on Virginia.
It wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about pretty offensive plays or sparkling fast-breaks. It was about locking down on defense, of making every possession a war, as NCSU coach Kevin Keatts put it.
The Cavaliers held off the Wolfpack 59-53, but needed overtime to win their 11th straight game at home this season and 21st overall at John Paul Jones Arena.
It was tight at the end of regulation. An inside basket by the Pack’s D.J. Burns pulled the Pack within 47-45 with 57.9 seconds left. The Wolfpack needed a defensive stop and got it, calling a timeout with 26.2 seconds remaining.
Michael O’Connell’s putback of a Burns miss tied it up. The Pack again got the defensive stop, with Casey Morsell making a steal and getting off a running 50-foot shot that banged off the rim and caused gasps in the UVa. crowd.
Virginia (14-5, 5-3 ACC) never trailed in the overtime as Jordan Minor scored the first basket to get things started and Taine Murray soon followed with a 3 for a 53-47 lead. Ryan Dunn, who had 13 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks, capped the victory with a fast-break dunk that had the crowd of 13,947 -- Cavs coach Tony Bennett called it the loudest of the season -- up and roaring.
For Virginia, offense almost seems like an after-thought under Bennett. For the Wahoos, as Bennett sees it, the game is to be decided on the defensive end.
Virginia held the Pack to a season-low 15 first-half points Wednesday. Fifteen, on 6-for-24 shooting from the field that had the Wolfpack missing all three of its 3-pointers and D.J. Horne, its leading scorer, not scoring.
The Pack (13-6, 5-3), which beat the Cavs 76-60 in Raleigh on Jan. 6, scored the first six points of the game and appeared confident enough. But too many possessions ended with aggressively contested shots that would not fall and a scoring drought of five or more minutes in the opening half.
But the Pack played hard, especially Morsell, the former Virginia guard who defended Isaac McKneely well -- the ACC’s top 3-point shooter was 2-of-9 from the arc -- and had a team-high 13 points. O’Connell and Mohamed Diarra also gave the Pack productive minutes off the bench, O’Connell with his court savvy and Diarra around the basket.
But being outrebounded 54-32 by the Cavaliers was too much for the Pack to overcome in the end.
“Give Virginia credit for the way they came out,” Keatts said. “GIve our guys credit for our fight to get back into the game and put us in a good situation.”
Takeaways from the ACC game:
Fight to the finish
Keatts likes a lot about this year’s team, but especially it’s fight, he often says.
“We fight to the end,” he said after the loss to Virginia Tech.
The Pack did that at Virginia. After a miserable offensive first half, the Pack pulled within 37-32 midway through the second half with a 7-0 run capped by a driving basket by Morsell.
Suddenly it was a game. cKneely bombed in a 3 for the Cavs, but Horne did the same.
A steal and fast-break dunk by the Pack’s Mo Diarra made it 40-37, and another DIarra basket made it a 40-39 game. When O’Connell knocked in a shot from the top of the key, the Pack led 41-40 with 4:25 remaining in regulation.
After a Virginia score, O’Connell drove for a basket but Reece Beekman answered with a 3-point play and McKneely a jumper as the Cavs edged back ahead 47-43.
“We got wobbly and almost fell down but we popped up and made enough plays,” Bennett said.
Cavs go hard at home
The Cavaliers are a different team at home. It shows. And especially when the referees go easy on the whistles and “let the teams play.”
The Pack doesn’t mind a physical brand of basketball. But the Cavs take it to another level, bodying up on everything.
Eight minutes into the second half, Virginia was called for a foul on a slight push. The crowd reacted with howls of disbelief.
There wasn’t the same reaction when the Pack’s O’Connell was called for a touch foul when Beekman scored in the lane late in regulation for a 3-point play. Only cheers that time.
Virginia was called for eight personal fouls — in the game. The Pack had 16 fouls, not that Keatts made an issue of it.
“If you’re asking me if I thought the refereeing was bad, no, I didn’t,” Keatts said.
Burns needed on defensive end too
D.J.Burns can be a dynamic player at times. But at other times …
Early in the second half, the Pack’s big man scored three inside baskets. He looked the part of the player who came into the ACC last season and quickly made other teams aware of his — yes, large — presence.
He did it again late in regulation, using his size to get position low for the kind of shots in the blocks he likes.
Keatts came to his defense Wednesday, noting the contact Burns draws, often with no whistle.
“I do think D.J. Burns is being refereed a little different than most bigs,” Keatts said. “Because of his physical ability, I don’t think he gets the benefit of the doubt.”
But Burns can be a defensive liability at times. On one play Wednesday, the Pack worked extremely hard defensively for the length of the shot clock and the Cavs’ Dante Harris put up a 3 that was off the mark. But Jordan Minor swept down the lane and past Burns to grab the rebound for a big dunk.
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 9:30 PM.
