Florida State freshman forward Phil Cofer drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing with 14:39 to go in the second half Sunday night at John Paul Jones Arena. The basket cut the Virginia men’s basketball team’s six-point lead to three with plenty of time left for either team to seize control.
But the crowd went quiet for another reason immediately following the play. Standout guards junior Malcolm Brogdon and sophomore London Perrantes collided, head to head, and both were noticeably shaken up. Brogdon left the court holding the side of his head and Perrantes his bleeding nose.
“I was trying to avoid him,” Brogdon said. “I’m sure he was trying to avoid me. But it was happening too fast.”
His starting backcourt momentarily out of commission, Virginia coach Tony Bennett subbed in guards freshman Marial Shayok and redshirt freshman Devon Hall, who took the court alongside forwards senior Darion Atkins, junior Anthony Gill and freshman Isaiah Wilkins.
Though that group held down the fort until a bandaged Brogdon returned with 12:59 to play, the Seminoles and No. 2 Cavaliers had to battle for a while longer. Bennett’s 200th win, and 131st at Virginia, a 51-41 decision before a packed house, was not in the bag until very late.
“I thought our guys just found a way, and that’s what we had to [do] when London went out and Malcolm for a little bit,” Bennett said. “We just challenged them — just dig down deep.”
Perrantes returned to the bench with 6:47 remaining and his team up by two, but he donned a shooting shirt shortly thereafter and never took it off. In his absence, the Cavaliers (24-1, 12-1 ACC) looked to Brogdon, Shayok, Hall and junior forward Evan Nolte to keep taking care of the ball. And though Florida State (15-13, 7-8 ACC) boasts three 7-footers, in the end Virginia stood tall.
Brogdon’s rebound and outlet pass to Shayok, who threw down a breakaway two-handed jam with 1:16 to play, seemed to seal the victory. The slam dunk put Virginia in front by eight, a margin Florida State did not threaten in the final minute.
Gill paced the Cavaliers with game highs of 13 points and nine rebounds, scoring in double figures for the 32nd time in his Virginia career. But it was Atkins who delivered consecutive baskets after Brogdon and Perrantes left the court, with both coming in the paint, where the Cavaliers scored two-thirds of their total points.
Atkins finished with 11 points on seven shots and a career-high four steals.
“Just to be aggressive and lead my team — that was really my mindset,” Atkins said of his thoughts in the moments after the collision. “And I feel like I contributed really well tonight.”
Atkins’ second basket pushed Virginia’s lead to 35-30 with 13:18 to play. Nineteen seconds later, Brogdon reentered the fray. Still, Virginia hardly pulled away in the minutes that followed.
The Seminoles actually took the lead at 37-36 on sophomore forward Jarquez Smith’s jump shot with 10:08 left. Hall responded with a reverse layup that ended up as his only basket of the game, and the shot proved big — Virginia never relinquished the lead after that bucket, though that lead remained uncomfortably narrow until the final minute.
Brogdon said he received three stitches for his cut, while Bennett said Perrantes had likely broken his nose. Atkins said he saw Perrantes’ nose post-treatment.
“He has about five stitches in his nose and hopefully he’ll get a mask and he’ll come back,” Atkins said.
The Cavaliers and Seminoles shot 36 and 36.4 percent, respectively, in the first half, with Virginia taking a 22-21 lead into halftime. To that point, Florida State freshman guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes — who had drained two 3-pointers and tallied 10 points — was keeping his team in the game.
But Rathan-Mayes scored just three points after halftime, when Florida State — a perennially dominant defensive team enduring a subpar season by longtime coach Leonard Hamilton’s standards — tanked to 29.2 percent from the field. In addition, Rathan-Mayes had to be helped off the court late in the second half, though he subbed back in for the duration with 3:48 to go.
Virginia squared off against Florida State last year in ACC opener for both teams. Less than three minutes had elapsed when star guard Joe Harris departed with a concussion. Harris also took a kick to the face from forward Bernard James, who apologized to Virginia in a written statement, in March 2012.
Atkins said Florida State’s tough brand of basketball is not new to them.
“They’re a really physical team,” Atkins said. “We knew they were going to play like that, and [with] any team like that, we just have to match their physicality. It doesn’t really matter what happens on the court as long as we get it done.”
Virginia will play Wake Forest Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina before returning to JPJ to play Virginia Tech in its final home game of the season.
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