CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Five players scored in double-figures to lead No. 22 Virginia (6-2, 2-0 ACC) to a 70-61 win over Wake Forest (3-2, 0-2 ACC) on Wednesday night at John Paul Jones Arena.
The Cavaliers did not lead until the 16:12 mark in the second half, but outscored Wake Forest 36-22 after halftime. Sam Hauser (Stevens Point, Wis.) led with 16 points, scoring 11 in the second half, and had 11 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Trey Murphy III (Durham, N.C.) scored 13 points, Reece Beekman (Baton Rouge, La.) had 12, Jay Huff (Durham, N.C.) added 11 and Kihei Clark (Woodland Hills, Calif.) had 10.
Virginia shot 54 percent from the field, while Wake Forest shot 51 percent and was 53 percent from 3-point range. Both teams finished with 26 rebounds. The Cavaliers had 10 steals and led 38-20 in points in the paint.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Wake Forest started the game 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and took a 26-14 lead with 8:47 to play in the first half. The Cavaliers cut it to one, 30-29, with a 12-2 run that was capped off by a dunk by Beekman. Wake Forest extended its lead back to seven after its sixth three of the half. Justin McKoy (Cary, N.C.) made a layup to send UVA into the half down 39-34. Beekman and Murphy III each led UVA with eight points in the first half.
Virginia came out strong in the second half, opening with a 14-4 run to take a 48-43 lead. The Cavaliers then used a 10-0 run that included six points from Hauser to lead 62-49 with 9:08 to play. The teams traded baskets down the stretch as UVA held on for the win.
THE GAME BALL GOES TO
Reece Beekman had a career-high 12 points and five steals and added three assists.
FROM TONY BENNETT
On handling adversity:
“There’s certainly things bigger than the game. We have a lot of things we had to deal with, myself and Ronnie Weidman and Johnny Carpenter as the coaches. Ronnie is our operations guy, Johnny’s been our video coordinator and they did a great job of practice all week. Even Bach (Erich Bacher) our esteemed sports information director, was helping us out a little practice. So it was it was an interesting time but we just talked about banding together without Austin Katstra without Kody (Stattmann) without Casey (Morsell). We knew we were going to have to come together. I thought we had a spirited week of practice and obviously events that happened today you know there’s a lot of stuff going on, but we just talked about let’s try to take a step in the right direction. When the game started, I thought offensively Dave we were pretty good in the first half. We got the shots we needed, but defensively, we had a lot of trouble. Again they were hitting shots. We had some breakdowns. And then the second half I thought we adjusted well. I thought the ball pressure picked up. Kihei decided to really pick up the ball and everybody with, just some adjustments, I think that helped really just stepped up. Reese gave us a really good lift, I think you saw some of some of his potential. Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of numbers in the rotation, but we played tough enough in the second half. We responded well to adversity and being shorthanded and, you know, a very good second half. from my standpoint.”
NOTES
- UVA has a four-game ACC home-opening winning streak
- UVA outscored Wake Forest 36-22 in the second half
- A Kihei Clark jump shot at 16:12 of the second half gave UVA its first lead at 43-41
- UVA went on a 12-2 run in the second half to gain a 48-43 lead
- Hauser recorded his second straight double-double (9th career) with 16 points and 11 rebounds
- Beekman had career highs in points (12) and steals (5)
- Junior guard Kody Stattmann is out with a non-COVID-19 related cardiac issue and will be sidelined until his evaluation process is completed. He has averaged 4.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in three games this season.
UP NEXT
Virginia is on the road at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Saturday, Jan. 9 at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.
