No stranger to having his name called, senior guard Malcolm Brogdon was once again tasked with rising to the challenge Saturday night. As has so often been the case, Brogdon responded and took over both ends of the court while leading No. 1 seed Virginia past No. 9 seed Butler, 77-69.
Early on, Brogdon carried the load on offense. The first-team All-American scored all six of Virginia’s points on perfect three-of-three shooting.
However, Brogdon’s teammates could not find their rhythm. No other Cavalier scored until the 11:55 mark when senior center Mike Tobey followed a miss by sophomore guard Marial Shayok. Before Tobey’s tip in, Virginia (28-7) had missed five of their last seven shots.
On the other end, the Cavaliers matched the Bulldogs (22-11) stop for stop. Butler missed seven of their first 11 attempts and were held without a three for the first 7:57.
But the Bulldogs made up for their offensive deficiencies with turnovers. Butler turned Virginia over five times in the first half — including a span of four turnovers in 6:19 — and parlayed those mistakes into six points. Butler, on the other hand, committed only two turnovers in the half.
“I said it to them before the game and reminded them, ‘Butler will not lose,’” coach Tony Bennett said. “You’re gonna have to go get it. You’re gonna have to beat them.”
When they were able to get set in the half court, Virginia’s defense frustrated Butler but had issues keeping the Bulldogs out of the paint. Coach Chris Holtmann’s team shot only 45.5 percent in the first half but did score 14 points in the paint.
Key to this was Virginia’s defense of three Butler stars — seniors Roosevelt Jones and Kellen Dunham and sophomore Kelan Martin. The trio, who on average combined 46.2 points per game, scored five points on 2-9.
Picking up the slack was junior forward Andrew Chrabascz. The Portsmouth, R.I. native led his team with 12 first-half points.
“Basically, it was just them finding me in open areas,” Chrabascz said.
Chrabascz picked up where he left off in the second, scoring the first 12 points for the Bulldogs on 4-4 shooting and giving Butler a 37-34 advantage with 16:32 remaining.
By then, the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year knew what he had to do. Brogdon switched onto Chrabascz — giving up two inches and 21 pounds on the Butler four man.
“Malcolm is that kind of player,” Bennett said. “You look at him all year. He’s guarded point guards, wings, different kind of guys at the four spot. We just said, ‘This is the time.’”
After the switch, Chrabascz scored a single point and missed all three shot attempts.
“He’s an excellent player,” Brogdon said. “He had an excellent game. … I thought my teammates were able to help me. … We just tried to make it difficult for him.”
Brogdon did more than dominate Butler’s most dominant offensive weapon. The Atlanta, Ga. native also took over on offense — scoring 14 points in the second while going 6-6 from the free throw line.
In total, Brogdon scored a team-high 22, grabbed five rebounds, tied for a game-high with five assists and moved into sole possession of ninth place on the all-time Cavalier scoring list with 1,785 points.
Unlike in the first half, the Cavaliers got into the paint with regularity in the second half. Jones could not stay in front of Brogdon while Gill abused Chrabascz on the low block to open up opportunities for their teammates. In all, the Cavaliers scored 32 points in the paint in the second half.
“They started decking the ball to the basket and posting up more in the second half,” Jones said.
Capitalizing on the increased space was sophomore guard Marial Shayok. The Ottawa, Ontario native scored 10 in the second half and got the assist on a Gill dunk, which gave Virginia the 46-44 lead.
“When Marial gets in the game he’s always looking to be aggressive and to attack the rim, and that’s something we need from him,” Gill said.
Shayok finished with 12 points and has reached double digits in three of his past four contests.
“I just wanted to bring some energy,” Shayok said.
Butler’s defense simply could not contain Virginia in the second. The Cavaliers made 12 of their first 13 field goal attempts and shot 73.1 percent from the floor after halftime.
For the game, Virginia shot 55.8 percent but only 2-10 from beyond the arc.
Virginia built a 64-55 advantage with 5:56 remaining, but tenacious Butler fought back and a turnover by sophomore guard Devon Hall led to a Jones layup which made it a two-possession game at 70-66.
With 36 seconds remaining, Jones split a pair of free throws to make the game 72-69. From that point on, the Bulldogs would miss their last three shots while Virginia went five-of-six from the charity stripe to ice the game.
The victory sends Virginia to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years where a date with No. 4 seed Iowa State awaits.
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