UVA Comes Up Short Against Duke on the Road

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Virginia lost 66-65 to Duke on Saturday night, giving them their first back-to-back losses of the season.

Duke left the door cracked open in the final two minutes, practically begging Virginia to steal a win. But, just as Duke couldn’t extend their 66-65 lead due to missed shots and free throws, Virginia couldn’t find the bottom of the basket on any of their four field-goal attempts.

That’s not to say Virginia was missing a bunch of wide-open looks. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Across the final two minutes, the Wahoos offense consisted of a rushed two-point jumper early in the shot clock by Casey Morsell, a fall-away three-ball deep in the corner by Sam Hauser at the end of the shot clock, and then a contested runner on the baseline by Kihei Clark…also at the end of the shot clock after an offensive rebound by Jay Huff off Hauser’s try. The fourth and final shot by Virginia, and certainly the most talked about, was their best chance to steal a valuable road victory. Coming off a missed free throw by Duke guard DJ Steward, Kihei Clark broke down the first Blue Devils’ defender, forcing a switch to Matthew Hurt at the top of the key; a hesitation dribble from Clark gave him all the room he needed for a potential wide-open game-winner, but the normally steady-handed Clark fumbled the ball — just for a second — allowing Hurt to recover and get a couple of fingers on Clark’s three-point try, leaving it way short as time expired. You can watch the play at the 9:37 mark below.

Huff led the Wahoos in scoring with 20 points, followed by 19 from Hauser and 15 from Clark. The Hoos were forced to play a little shorthanded as Tomas Woldetensae — 17.5 mpg in last four games — didn’t travel due to COVID-19 contact tracing. Morsell was forced back into heavy action (26 minutes), finishing with seven points on 3-of-8 shooting.

On its face, it was a one-point loss on the road against Duke. A lot of teams would practically consider that a win. But UVA is the best team in the ACC and a win would have shored up some of the concern that arose after the drubbing they suffered by Florida State earlier in the week. Now expectations are being tempered and reality is setting in a bit; the feared UVA defense isn’t on the same level as we’re used to. You can see it with the eye-test, and the numbers back it up. Virginia’s KenPom defensive efficiency ranking (No. 23) is the lowest it’s been since the 2012-13 season (No. 25) when they missed the NCAA Tournament altogether. The years in between read like this: No. 4, No. 2, No. 7, No. 2, No. 1, No. 5, and No. 1.

Combined, Florida State and Duke combined to shoot 46.8 percent from beyond the arc (22-for-47) against UVA’s defense. Gonzaga shot 50 percent against them a few months back. They’re handling the lower-level teams but struggling against the big dogs.

With all that said, it’s not panic time or anything. If Hauser’s three or Clark’s runner goes down, there’s a different feeling around Tony Bennett‘s program. They still have three regular-season games before the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament. There’s a world where they beat Louisville on the road in the season finale to restore some confidence in their ability away from Charlottesville, then carry that momentum into the postseason.

Note: Freshman Jeremy Roach, a Northern Virginia native, had 12 points for Duke.