UVA Basketball Ends Skid With Uneven Win Over Miami

The UVA basketball team snapped their three-game skid on Monday night with a 62-51 win over last-place Miami. Sam Hauser, in his final game at John Paul Jones Arena, led all scorers with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting. Other seniors honored on Monday’s senior night were Jay Huff, Tomas Woldetensae, Austin Katstra, and student-managers Carter Furr and Matt Palumbo.

Huff, a likely all-conference selection, didn’t go out with the bang he would have hoped for, finishing with just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting. The bench, however, picked up the slack, combining for 20 points. In their last two games, Virginia’s bench only scored 13 points total.

Justin McKoy, a starter at the beginning of the season, provided a real spark with eight points. In the first half, he ripped off six straight points, taking the Hoos from a 15-12 deficit to an 18-15 lead. McKoy added six rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes played. Reece Beekman was also productive off the bench, doing good things on both ends of the floor. He shut down Miami’s best player Isaiah Wong when guarding him, making a strong case to guard the team’s best backcourt player come postseason time. Beekman’s offensive game is still evolving but he did have flashes of aggressiveness against the Canes. In particular, he had a pair of drives where he was decisive and finished strong at the cup.

It was hardly the blowout win some had predicted, but it was a win nonetheless. The Hoos still look sloppy on offense and despite only having eight turnovers, some were definitely avoidable. They only shot 40.4 percent from the field, missing a bunch of chippies in both halves. Hauser continues to look like the only player 100-percent unafraid to pull the trigger offensively. Some of that is by design, I’m sure, but there are times when it looks like Kihei Clark is passing up quality shots in favor of a kick-out. That’s definitely the job of the point guard and all but it results in rushed shots at the end of the clock sometimes.

Defensively, the Hoos did what they needed to do, holding Miami to 51 points on 38.5 percent shooting. McKoy and Beekman stood out on that end but never forget the Canes are the ACC’s worst offense and it was a six-point game with 3:07 to play in regulation. The Hoos actually fell two spots in the KenPom rankings after the win, going from No. 13 to No. 15. They’ll still need to raise their game on both ends when the real quality opponents lace up across from them.

Virginia, now 16-6 overall and 12-4 in the conference, clinched a double-bye and top-four seed in the ACC Tournament with the win. They’ll travel to Louisville for their season finale on Saturday, March 6th at 4 p.m. ET.