The Plus/Minus: Virginia Survives Wake Forest 49-47

Ryan Dunn’s seven blocks keyed a Virginia defense that held out against Wake Forest 49-47
The Plus/Minus: Virginia Survives Wake Forest 49-47
The Plus/Minus: Virginia Survives Wake Forest 49-47 /
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Virginia got back in the win column with a nail-biter of a 49-47 victory over Wake Forest on Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena. Val has the Plus/Minus to break down the tight win. 

Plus

A win is a win is a win, even (especially?) games where neither team breaches the 50-point threshold. As far as bracketology goes, Wake Forest had been percolating between first four out and last four in all week. A win at Virginia would have been a Quad 1 win for a team without any such wins. Wake needed this game and Virginia shut them down. 

Plus

Ryan Dunn had seven blocks, though the announcers and myself, counting along, had him down for eight. Dunn met seven footers at the rim, chased down guards in transition, and blocked threes. Virginia fans know a few things about blocks. Jay Huff was an elite rim protector and Ralph Sampson, had blocks been an official statistic when he played, would be in the top five all time. Dunn may be the most exciting to watch, though, as he defends the entire court. Virginia held a 13-8 lead mark at the 10:56 mark in the first and wouldn’t score again for almost 5.5 minutes. Two Dunn blocks, along with per usual stout defense, meant that when UVa finally scored, they were only down 15-16. That’s the Ryan Dunn Effect. 

Minus

I spend a lot of time on twitter searching for sports highlights. Virginia’s social media game is as mediocre as it gets for a major university. If you didn't actually see the blocks Dunn pulled off, you would think you would see them on Virginia’s twitter feed. But no. Not a one. Virginia had 13 blocks. Only one we get to see is this one from Jordan Minor, which admittedly was pretty good.

Plus

It was another stinker of a night from deep for Virginia, 4/13, and even worse from the charity stripe (1/11.) Wake came to the JPJ and was as dialed-in defensively as anyone the Cavaliers have faced yet. Reece Beekman is now in his fourth year of playing for Coach Tony Bennett; he’s learned when he has to take over the game and he did so to start the second half. With Virginia down 21-22, Beekman went on his own personal 10-2 run to give Virginia a lead they would never relinquish. Beekman opened the half with a pair of threes and got to the rim three other times. Beekman broke the 20-point barrier for the third time in six games, which is pretty remarkable considering Virginia only averages 62 or so possessions a game. 

Plus

For the Pittsburgh + / - I wrote that, “Dunn and Buchanan are building a nice two-man game of their own. In each of the last two games, Dunn has found a smartly-moving Buchanan at the rim. Seriously, these are Reece-Beekman quality assists.”

Make that four in a row now:

Whoa!

Tony Bennett got a technical! Apparently, Bennett last got T’d up in March of 2010 in a game against Maryland. I missed what made him so angry, but it was almost a welcome sight to see. Virginia, for most of the season, hasn’t been getting a fair shake from the zebras. Wake’s Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth were allowed on multiple occasions to push off with their arm when they had the ball, almost as if they were allowed an offensive arm bar.

Minus

Watch the steal below. It was a great play, but then watch what happens at the end of the clip. That’s Dante Harris flexing and then bumping Wake’s Boopie Miller. Both players got technicals. They’d been jawing at each other already. This was a needless foul on Harris’ part, and yet Bennett kept Harris in. It became a personal grudge match for Harris and Miller as they both had a go at hero ball. Harris was more disruptive to his team of the two, including airballing a 12-foot jumper. Before Bennett got Harris out, Wake had knocked five points off a seven-point deficit to draw to 41 – 39. Bennett has yanked people out quicker for far less. Why did he keep Harris in so long?

Minus

Wake Forest is the highest scoring team in the ACC and Virginia shut them down. Wake shot a season low 34% from the field and were 5/21 from beyond the arc. And yet this game was close down the stretch because Virginia apparently cannot make free throws. Jordan Minor, Blake Buchanan and Ryan Dunn combined to go 0/8. Beekman and Isaac McKneely went 1/3. It took a lot to go right for Virginia to win a nail-biter with the best free-throw shooting team in the ACC. Virginia may not be so lucky another time.

Read Matt's game report here.

Minus

“Lefty” Driesell passed away at age 92. Much of what the ACC is now is due to characters like Lefty. I’ve always felt that Virginia’s truest rival was Maryland, not Virginia Tech, and Lefty is a big part of that. RIP.

Plus

“Wake Forest sounds like a place where you go to learn how to do surgery on a chipmunk.”

A fabulous throw-away line from the TV show Bob Hearts Abishola.

Up Next: Speaking of rivals, Virginia hosts Virginia Tech on Monday, February 19th. Game time is 7pm and the game is on ESPN. 

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Published
Val Prochaska
VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for seven years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.