No. 15 Virginia labored its way to a late-game comeback Tuesday night on the road against Florida State. Tied at the half, the Cavaliers (21-3, 10-2 ACC) leaned heavily on graduate guard Jacari White and turned up the defense in the second half. In a game that saw Virginia score well below its 82.8 points per game average, the Seminoles (11-13, 4-7 ACC) matched the Cavaliers’ poor shooting en route to a 61-58 final.
“They had us on our heels pretty much the entire game,” Coach Ryan Odom said. “We turned the ball over too much, but it was one of those gritty games where we were able to just kind of hang in there and figure it out and find the way at the end.”
Florida State, coming off a three-game winning streak, took its first lead 13 minutes into the game and controlled much of the offensive pace from there. The Cavaliers struggled to find their shooting rhythm after losing the lead, hitting just 2-14 from the floor. Eventually a three-pointer from sparkplug freshman guard Chance Mallory rekindled the Virginia offense, which clawed back to a tied 32-32 mark at the half.
Senior guard Robert McCray V was the Seminole’s offensive engine in the first half. McCray V had 13 first-half points and a trio of rebounds, he also shot a team best 4-6 from the floor including a perfect mark from three and from the foul line. McCray’s first half reached its high-water mark with a thunderous dunk over senior center Ugonna Onyenso.
In the second half, three-point shooting struggles became even worse for most of the Cavalier squad. Freshman forward Thijs De Ridder and junior guard Sam Lewis, two of Virginia’s usual bucket-getters, were especially quiet in the second half. The pair scored just four and two points in the half, respectively.
Fortunately for Virginia, White, a 43 percent three-point shooter on the season, stepped it up for the Cavaliers. White hit four three-pointers on the way to a team-leading 16 second-half points. White even recorded an emphatic dunk of his own — notably, with his right hand. White still wears a brace on his left wrist after he fractured it landing from a similar dunk earlier in the season.
“[White] was tremendous today,” Odom said. “The ball kept finding him and he kept delivering.”
Virginia pulled out a road win despite offensive struggles by relying on its own stifling defense. Contesting almost every Florida State attempt — along with Onyenso recording a trio of blocks in the paint — the Cavaliers held their opponent to less than 60 points for the seventh time this season. The Seminoles limped their way to a gruesome 6-33 from three, and a sub-30 percent total from the floor.
Though the win may not have looked the best on paper, it did mark the season’s 21st win and Virginia’s ninth on the road. Though Virginia has gone on a five-game win streak in the easier stretch of its conference schedule, statistical struggles like this raise question marks as to how the Cavaliers will perform against top ACC teams. While there is something to be said for winning by an impressive margin, winning by any means necessary takes the forefront when considering ACC Tournament seeding.
“We have an experienced group that never feels like they’re out of it. We certainly have to play better than we are playing right now if we want to challenge the best teams in the country,” Odom said. "But there's toughness when you’ve won 21 games now. They can win pretty, they can win ugly, they just find a way.”
Virginia will take a break from regular ACC scheduling Saturday at 8 p.m. to play Ohio State in the Nashville Hoops Showdown, which will be aired on Fox. The Buckeyes (15-8, 7-6 Big Ten) sit at No. 10 in the Big Ten. It will be the Cavaliers fourth neutral site game of the season. Ohio State is spearheaded by senior guard Bruce Thornton, who is averaging nearly 20 points a contest. The Buckeyes recently suffered a 20-plus-point loss to No. 2 Michigan and will have just faced the University of Southern California Tuesday when they turn their attention to the Cavaliers.
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