No. 16 Cavaliers Make One other Assertion on Street

By Jeff White ([email protected])
VirginiaSports activities.com

DALLAS — For clashes with two of the ACC’s prime males’s basketball groups, No. 16 Virginia visited Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday evening (Jan. 13) and SMU’s Moody Coliseum on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 17).

The Cavaliers left each arenas smiling.

“Every win on the road is like gold,” head coach Ryan Odom stated after UVA rallied to defeat SMU 72-68, “and this particular group understands that if you want to compete at the highest level of the ACC and compete for a championship, you have to win games on the road. The eventual champion will do that.”

The Wahoos (16-2 total, 5-1 ACC) gained 79-70 over the No. 20 Cardinals. Their recreation with the Mustangs (13-5, 2-3) was a lot nearer. There had been 13 lead adjustments Saturday, the final of which got here when Thijs De Ridder’s two free throws put Virginia up 70-68 with 1:07 remaining.

De Ridder, whose 3-pointer on the 2:29 mark had given UVA a 67-65 lead, hit two extra free throws with 10.2 seconds left to shut out the scoring. At the opposite finish of courtroom, the 6-foot-9 De Ridder then grabbed a defensive rebound and dribbled up the courtroom, letting out a triumphant scream when the ultimate horn sounded.

“I was just happy we took this, because I know how many teams have lost here,” stated De Ridder, who’s from Belgium.

The Hoos have dominated many of the groups they’ve confronted this season, not often discovering themselves in shut video games. This was their first such contest since New Year’s Eve, once they misplaced in triple additional time to Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum.

For the Cavaliers, the late-game effectivity they lacked in opposition to the Hokies was evident in opposition to the Mustangs.

“Every loss is a lesson for us,” guard Malik Thomas stated after scoring a game-high 23 factors, “and I feel like that Virginia Tech game, if we didn’t lose that, we wouldn’t be in the position we are now. Obviously, you want to win and learn lessons from a win, but sometimes it’s good enough to learn from a loss. So I think that showed us a lot of things, how to close games. I know there’s points in the game where we could have closed it and stretched out even further, but [SMU is] a good team.”

Asked about his staff’s late-game execution Saturday, Odom stated, “I thought our guys did a nice job. We got to the free-throw line, made our free throws when we needed to, got the stops when we needed to, [pulled down] key rebounds. I think that’s really what it comes down to. Can you get the stop when you need it? Can you get the bucket when you need it? And I thought our guys just did really well with that tonight.”

With succesful scorers all through its roster, SMU got here in averaging 88.4 factors per recreation. The Mustangs’ greatest menace is guard Boopie Miller, who hit a game-winning 3-pointer with four-tenths of a second left to stun Virginia final season at John Paul Jones Arena.

Miller dellivered an much more dramatic game-winner Wednesday, hitting a halfcourt shot as time expired in opposition to Virginia Tech, and he got here into Saturday averaging 20.8 factors per recreation.

Hounded by UVA guards Dallin Hall and Chance Mallory, Miller scored solely 12, and he didn’t attain double figures till 2:05 remaining.

“It starts with him,” Odom stated of Miller. “He’s only a dynamite competitor and actually powerful to arrange for. He makes photographs exterior the lane which are actually particular, as a result of he is so quick and he can get dribbles underneath the basket.

“He made one today, and that’s his staple. He’s always doing that. He dribbles under the basket and gets back outside and then he turns around and shoots it before you can get back to him. We just encouraged our guys, number one, not to foul him. That’s the key. You have to keep him off the free-throw line. And I thought our guys, for the most part, did a solid job with that and got help to him.”

With UVA main 70-68, Hall blocked Miller’s shot out of bounds. The Mustangs retained possession, however they missed their subsequent shot, and Virginia rebounded. The Cavaliers completed with a 40-32 benefit on the boards.

Thomas, who led the Hoos with a career-high 11 rebounds, performed with a particular sense of objective Saturday. He wished to honor the reminiscence of his sister, Chanel, who handed away in 2023.

“I want to shout out my sister,” Thomas stated. “It’s her birthday. Rest in peace.”

Virginia turned its 16 offensive rebounds into 22 second-chance factors. Thomas and De Ridder grabbed 4 offensive boards apiece.

De Ridder regarded out of kinds at instances Saturday, however he settled down within the last minutes and completed with 17 factors.

“That’s something I have to work on, my mental part,” De Ridder stated, “but I showed today that I can do it.”

Odom stated that typically when De Ridder “gets in those moments, you have to take him out of the game, just so he can take a deep breath and get himself back to neutral and then go back in there, because one mistake can become two. He’s not alone in that.”

When De Ridder wasn’t within the recreation, Devin Tillis crammed in admirably. In 14-plus minutes off the bench, the 6-foot-7 Tillis hit three treys and completed with 11 factors.

Tillis did “an awesome job throughout this game,” Odom stated. “He played more like himself, which was really helpful for us.”

Hall, who begins at level guard, missed all eight of his photographs Saturday, however he contributed in different methods. He completed with a season-high 9 assists, had the essential block of Miller’s shot within the last minute, and turned the ball over solely as soon as.

“He’s the ultimate competitor,” Odom stated of Hall. “He’s a tremendous leader. I encouraged him when, I think, he was 0 for 4 or 0 for 5. I was like, ‘Hey, keep shooting, dude. You’re going to be fine.’ ”

Odom smiled. “And he ended up not being fine in this particular game, but he will be fine. But he does so many other things for our team. In a lot of ways, he’s the foundation, especially [for a new coach]. There’s not a better player to have on your side when you’re first coming in, and I’m really proud of what he’s able to do, what he’s done for our program so far in Virginia.”