Breaking Down Virginia’s Season-Changing Win at No. 7 Duke

Taking a deeper look at how the Cavaliers took down the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor on Monday night

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Feb 8, 2022 5:21 AM EST

For just the second time in the last 27 years, Virginia went into Cameron Indoor and beat the Duke Blue Devils on their home floor. UVA was solid on both ends of the floor, building a lead as large as 12 points in the first half and leading Duke for most of the game. But, as expected when facing a top-ten team on the road in one of the most challenging environments in college basketball, even one of Virginia’s best performances seemed destined to fall short as the Cavaliers found themselves down by two with only seconds remaining.

Then, Reece Beekman reprised the role of the hero for the second time in his career, knocking down a three-pointer with only 1.1 seconds remaining to give Virginia a 69-68 victory over No. 7 Duke in Durham on Monday night.

It was an incredible and wild victory for the Cavaliers and one which significantly boosts their NCAA Tournament resume. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the key stats, standout performances, and takeaways from Virginia’s victory at Duke.

Key Stats

Points in the Paint: Virginia- 52 | Duke- 28

Kadin Shedrick, Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball at Duke Blue Devils men's basketball — Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

Despite the shot selection on Virginia’s final possession to win the game, the Cavaliers evidently have fully embraced their perimeter shooting shortcomings. The Hoos refused to settle for outside shots, attempting only 12 threes and making just two of them (although one of them was pretty important). UVA was determined to outwork Duke on the inside and the Cavaliers succeeded. Virginia had an astonishing 52-28 advantage in points in the paint, an almost unheard-of stat to have against Coach K’s Blue Devils, who usually pride themselves on using their athleticism and strength to get to the basket at will.

We are also obligated to mention fouls and free throw shooting in this section, as aggressiveness in the paint and drawing fouls go hand in hand. Despite Virginia taking a 12-point lead in the first half, the Blue Devils were able to get back in the game and eventually overtake the Cavaliers behind a marked advantage at the free throw line. Virginia was whistled for 18 fouls in the game as compared to just 12 for Duke and the Blue Devils attempted 22 free throws, making 18 of them, while the Cavaliers made five of their nine free throw attempts.

Virginia won this game in spite of the disparity in fouls and free throws and that success stemmed directly from UVA’s aggressiveness and execution in scoring in the paint. At times, the game turned into a dunk contest as a result of Kihei Clark dropping dimes and Kadin Shedrick reaping the benefits with ferocious dunks. More on Clark and Shedrick later.

Points Off Turnovers: Virginia- 20 points off of 15 Duke turnovers | Duke- 2 points off of 5 Virginia turnovers

Armaan Franklin, Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball at Duke Blue Devils men's basketball — Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

Coming into this game, the last 12 meetings between Virginia and Duke have all been decided by 10 points or less with an average margin of 4.6 points. Put simply, the Cavaliers and Blue Devils always play closely contested games with entertaining finishes and this one was no different. With the margin of error being so small, this game was bound to be decided by just one or two plays, which is why it was so crucial that the Cavaliers took such good care of the basketball.

UVA turned the ball over just five times in the entire game and Duke scored only two points off of those takeaways. Had Virginia been just a little more sloppy with the ball and had a couple or even one more giveaway, that would have likely spelled a heartbreaking defeat for the Wahoos.

Virginia scored 20 points off of 15 Duke turnovers, giving the Cavaliers a huge advantage that allowed them to come away with the win. One forced turnover in particular needs to be highlighted. With under two minutes left and Virginia trailing 66-64, Reece Beekman drove to the basket and had his shot rejected by Theo John and Beekman fell out of bounds. Duke got the ball to Jeremy Roach, who possessed it for just a moment, before Beekman came back in bounds and poked it away before collecting it and laying it in plus a foul. That play was overshadowed by the late drama and Beekman’s game-winner, but at a moment when the Blue Devils were beginning to gain control of the game and all of the momentum was on Duke’s side, Beekman’s hustle play took the air out of the building and likely saved the game for UVA.

Fastbreak points: Virginia- 10 | Duke- 1

Kihei Clark, Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball at Duke Blue Devils men's basketball — Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

No, that’s not a typo. Virginia outscored Duke 10-1 in fastbreak points, an almost impossible outcome given the team’s reputations and style of play. The Blue Devils love to get out and run, using their athletes to swarm and force live-ball turnovers and start the fastbreak. Virginia loves to slow it down, milking the clock on offense and making opposing teams use up the shot clock on the other end of the floor. Everything is slow and calculated. The 10-1 advantage in fastbreak points is a marker of Virginia’s incredible defensive efforts, forcing Duke to earn every bucket, rather than letting the Blue Devils get out in transition for easy buckets. It is also a token of Virginia’s soundness with ball security, only turning the ball over five times against an aggressive and fast Duke defense.

We’re not sure if this play was counted as a fastbreak bucket but Kihei Clark’s half-court lob to Kadin Shedrick deserves to be remembered among the highlight plays in UVA’s victory.

Standout Performances

Kadin Shedrick

He was nearly forgotten in all of the chaos and heroics in the final seconds of the game, but Virginia would not have even had a chance to win the game at the end if not for Kadin Shedrick delivering the best performance of his UVA career. Shedrick finished with a career-high 16 points on a perfect 8/8 shooting from the floor. The redshirt sophomore also tallied six rebounds, three of which were offensive rebounds, including this thunderous putback dunk.

Shedrick and Kihei Clark formed a deadly duo and Shedrick seemed to always be in the right place at the right time when Clark made a play and got Shedrick the ball near the basket. The North Carolina native was more than happy to finish those chances with powerful dunks in front of the Duke crowd.

Jayden Gardner

Speaking of North Carolina natives, Jayden Gardner remarked after the game that beating the Blue Devils at Cameron “is the whole cake”, as Gardner was born in Durham and grew up coming to Duke basketball games. Gardner was Virginia’s leading scorer with 17 points on 8/19 shooting and always had an answer with his reliable mid-range jumper when Duke started to get some momentum going. Gardner also recorded eight rebounds, two steals, and a block.

Kihei Clark

Clark flexed his veteran experience in this game. The senior point guard refused to be rattled by the pressure of the moment, even when Duke took the lead late, or the hostility of the environment, which included a row of shirtless Duke students who had painted letters on their chests spelling out, “Kihei is short.” Clark’s performance on Monday night was anything but tiny, as he operated the Virginia offense like a maestro, penetrating the Duke defense and spinning passes around Duke’s bigs to set up open dunks for Virginia.

Clark finished with eight points, two steals, two rebounds, and nine assists, none more important than his pass to Reece Beekman on Virginia’s final possession of the game. Just as he did last March when he assisted on Beekman’s buzzer-beating three-pointer against Syracuse in the ACC Tournament, Clark found an open Beekman for the game-winner over Duke.

Bonus: Virginia’s defense

Jayden Gardner and Kadin Shedrick double-team Paolo Banchero during Virginia's 69-68 victory over Duke at Cameron Indoor. — Photo courtesy of Rob Kinnan/USA TODAY Sports

Despite the relatively high score (for UVA’s standards), Virginia’s defense was solid and made the Blue Devils work hard for their baskets. Projected lottery pick Paolo Banchero, who came into the game averaging 17.5 points per game, had just nine points on 3/9 shooting from the field. Wendell Moore, who averages over 14 points per game, had only nine points as well. What was most impressive was Virginia’s defense on AJ Griffin, who scored a career-high 27 points against North Carolina on Saturday. Griffin, the ACC’s leader in three-point shooting (50.0% coming in), was held to just two points, going 1/7 from the floor and 0/2 from three. Virginia also held the Blue Devils without a field goal for nearly three minutes to end the game. UVA did not shut Duke down, but the Hoos did just enough to come away with the win.

Takeaways

Reece Beekman is clutch

This one is obvious, but for a guy who doesn’t shoot that many threes, or really shoot that much in general, Beekman is proving to be a reliable player in clutch situations. He is already a fantastic defender and distributor of the ball on offense. If he also becomes a dependable shot-maker in late-game situations - look out, college basketball.

Virginia has a chance

When we looked at Virginia’s remaining schedule a couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of hypothetical calculus in our minds about what record the Cavaliers would need to have in their final ten games in order to set themselves up to play into the NCAA Tournament by finishing the regular season strong and winning a couple of games in the ACC Tournament. There were a few long-shot scenarios in which the Hoos could put themselves in a position for an at-large bid and most of them required that Virginia win at least two of their four games against Miami and Duke. Not many people expected UVA’s game at Duke to be one of those wins and rather thought that UVA could potentially get the job done the second time around in front of a home crowd at JPJ on February 23rd.

Instead, Virginia already has those two wins over Miami and Duke. The Cavaliers have won three in a row and are suddenly in position to go on a run down the stretch and put themselves in the bubble conversation much sooner than expected. Don’t get me wrong - there is still much work to be done for the Cavaliers, who still have games at Miami and at home against Duke and Florida State (UVA plays those three opponents in consecutive games, by the way) and the road to a March Madness appearance is still long and challenging. But, this is the momentum shift that the Cavaliers needed. Beating a top ten Duke team at Cameron just two days after picking up a convincing win over Miami is just what the doctor ordered. Maybe, just maybe, the tide has turned in Charlottesville.

Season Reset

Virginia is now 15-9 overall and 9-5 in ACC play with six games remaining in the regular season.

Next five games: vs. Georgia Tech (Feb. 12), at Virginia Tech (Feb. 14), at Miami (Feb. 19), vs. Duke (Feb. 23), vs. Florida State (Feb. 26)

Postseason outlook: Virginia’s three-game winning streak, and especially the last two wins against Miami and at Duke, have substantially changed Virginia’s postseason odds in a very positive direction. Virginia is still squarely outside of the NCAA Tournament field, but the Cavaliers have the looks of a team getting hot at precisely the right time. The metrics (NET, Kenpom, etc.) may take a little while to come around on the Hoos, whose nagging early-season losses to JMU and Navy form weighty shackles around their ankles. But, if UVA continues to win, we may just see the name “Virginia” finally creep into the bubble in the latest bracketology projections. As we already detailed, there are some tough games down the stretch, as well as games against other ACC teams down the conference leaderboards who the Cavaliers should know not to overlook (Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Louisville). But, there are certainly plenty of opportunities for the Hoos to implement their “one game at a time” mentality towards earning themselves a spot in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.