Virginia Hangs on to Beat Wake Forest 49-47 in Defensive Slugfest

Despite going 1/11 from the free throw line, the Cavaliers managed to beat the Demon Deacons behind 20 points from Reece Beekman

Virginia came into the game ranked 336th out of 362 teams in Division I men's basketball in free throw shooting, shooting 65.7% as a team. After Saturday's game, the Cavaliers will probably fall a few more spots in that category as they missed their first 10 free throws and were an atrocious 1/11 from the charity stripe for the game. 

It's a minor miracle that such poor free throw shooting didn't actually cost UVA the game, but it very nearly did. 

But behind 20 points from Reece Beekman, including 14 points in the second half, and some clutch defensive plays down the stretch from the UVA front court, Virginia (20-6, 11-4 ACC) managed to hang on for a gritty 49-47 victory over Wake Forest (16-9, 8-6 ACC) on Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena. 

Emblematic of the low point total that would eventually brand this game in the final score, this one was a slugfest from the beginning, with both teams playing tough, physical basketball while the refs struggled to maintain consistency in their officiating, alternating between letting them play when there was a heavy amount of contact and calling it tight at other times. 

That brand of basketball suited Efton Reid, as the 7'0", 250-pound center scored Wake Forest's first six points of the game. Andrew Rohde also got off to a good start for Virginia, assisting on a Ryan Dunn bucket and then hitting a quick catch-and-shoot three from the right wing. He later assisted on a corner jumper by Isaac McKneely as Virginia made its first five shots of the contest and led 11-6 early on. 

A four-minute scoring drought followed for the Cavaliers, but the Demon Deacons also went more than four minutes without scoring during the same stretch as the game grinded to a halt, on the scoreboard at least. Reece Beekman scored to end UVA's drought, but only temporarily, as the Cavaliers proceeded to go another five minutes before scoring again. 

Wake Forest, meanwhile, got back-to-back three-pointers from Damari Monsanto and Kevin Miller and then a layup from Cameron Hildreth to cap an 8-0 Demon Deacon run. Those were the only two threes for Wake Forest in the first half, but Virginia was even worse from beyond the arc, going 1/6 for three in the first 20 minutes. 

Dunn and Beekman scored to put UVA back in front, but then came another drought for the Cavaliers. Wake Forest took advantage of that drought with a 6-0 run, which included referee Mark Schnur assessing Tony Bennett a technical foul for complaining about a missed travel. That was just the second technical foul Tony Bennett has been called for in his 15 years at Virginia and first since 2010, his first season at UVA. 

"I thought Hildreth had traveled on the play... and I said 'call the bleeping foul'," Tony Bennett recalled after the game. "I guess I deserved that, but if every time a coach in our league is dropping a cuss word, there'd be a lot of technicals. But I shouldn't have said that, I really shouldn't have. It was classless on my part. It's just the heat of the moment because it was a big possession."

Wake Forest used that stretch to build its largest lead of five points, but UVA scored the final two baskets of the half as McKneely hit a floater and Dunn scored in the paint to narrow the deficit to one with Wake Forest leading 22-21 at halftime. Efton Reid led all scorers with eight points, while Virginia had three players with six points at halftime. 

The rare ultra-aggressive version of Reece Beekman emerged to start the second half, as the senior point guard knocked down a pair of three-pointers on Virginia's first two possessions and scored UVA's first ten points of the half. Beekman's surge gave his team a five-point edge, but Wake Forest responded with a 6-0 run to regain the advantage before McKneely hit a stepback jumper, the first Cavalier basket of the second half by someone not named Reece Beekman. 

In the middle stretch of the second half, Virginia temporarily seized control thanks to a series of high-energy plays that brought the JPJ crowd to life. Ryan Dunn came up with a huge block on Andrew Carr in the paint and then assisted on a Blake Buchanan slam dunk. UVA forced a shot-clock violation and then Beekman came up with a steal and a dunk in transition to give the Cavaliers their largest lead at 41-34. 

After scoring six points in the first three minutes of the game and eight in the first half, Efton Reid was held to two points in the entire second half and 10 for the game, an outcome produced by excellent interior defense by both Jordan Minor and Blake Buchanan, who also gave UVA a lift on the offensive end with six second-half points. With Minor and Buchanan handling Reid largely one-on-one, that allowed Ryan Dunn to roam the paint and post a career-high seven blocks. 

For as good as Virginia's forwards played on both ends of the floor, they struggled mightily from the free throw line, squandering opportunities to put the game away down the stretch. That allowed Wake Forest to slowly work back into the game and a three from Parker Friedrichsen pulled the Demon Deacons back within a point with less than four minutes to play. 

Out of the media timeout, Virginia executed a well-designed play with Beekman driving baseline and finding McKneely with a hammer pass for a clutch corner three to push the UVA lead back up to four. Both teams missed out on high-quality scoring opportunities in their next few possessions, with Buchanan and Dunn fighting over the ball when an uncontested putback layup was available, and then Hildreth passed up on a wide-open three in transition. Eventually, Hildreth scored on a drive on Beekman to make it 46-44 with a little over a minute remaining. 

Beekman threw a lob for Dunn and Dunn's shot was just off the mark, but Buchanan came up with a big-time putback plus a foul to restore Virginia's four-point lead. But with UVA already 0/6 from the free throw line, that left that four-point lead in precarious position, as the Cavaliers knew they would need to knock down some free throws in order to seal the win. Somehow though, they managed to win the game without converting on foul shots. 

Buchanan missed the ensuing free throw and Dunn grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled, but he missed the front end of the one-and-one. Rohde got a piece of Friedrichsen's three-point attempt that fell well short on Wake's next possession and then Virginia finally got its guards to the free throw line instead of its forwards. 

But it turns out the foul shooting woes extended to the entire team. Beekman missed the front and of a one-and-one, leaving the door open for Wake Forest. Hunter Sallis made a three to cut the lead to one with eight seconds to go and then the Demon Deacons fouled McKneely, who missed the first, but finally made UVA's first and only free throw of the game to make it 49-47. 

Wake Forest had already used all of its timeouts and consequently, did not get a great look on its final possession with a chance to tie the game. Cameron Hildreth went the length of the court and picked up his dribble on the baseline, forcing himself to take a tough fadeaway jumper that was well-contested by none other than Ryan Dunn. Hildreth's shot was off the mark and Buchanan swiped the ball away before Efton Reid could do anything with the rebound and time expired. 

Read Val's Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here: The Plus/Minus: Virginia Survives Wake Forest 49-47

Reece Beekman led Virginia with 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists and also played excellent on-ball defense on Hunter Sallis, who had 12 points after scoring 21 on five three-pointers in the first meeting between these two teams. Isaac McKneely joined him in double figures with 12 points, two blocks, and a steal. Ryan Dunn had fantastic defensive game and finished with six points, nine rebounds, seven blocks, and a steal. 

Virginia shot 40.7% from the floor and was 4/13 from three-point range. When you factor in the aforementioned dismal free throw shooting, it was hardly a glorious offensive performance for the Cavaliers. But thanks to a quality team defensive effort, that unremarkable level of offensive execution was enough to earn Virginia a huge win over a good Wake Forest team and bounce back from a poor defensive showing in Tuesday's loss to Pittsburgh. 

"We were quicker to shots, we weren't as detached as were against Pitt. We had more urgency in our recovery," Bennett said. "I think there were some good individual shots and plays made offensively and defensively, but overall our defense just had to toughen up and make them earn everything."

Up next, Virginia faces a quick turnaround as the Cavaliers head to Blacksburg to play the second part of the Commonwealth Clash against Virginia Tech on Monday night. Tipoff is set for 7pm on ESPN. 

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