The Plus/Minus: Virginia Holds on Late vs. Boston College
Virginia advanced to the semifinals of the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament with a 66-60 overtime win over Boston College on Thursday night in Washington, D.C. Val has the Plus/Minus to break down the Cavaliers' important victory.
Plus
A win is a win is a win. If overtime victories are sweeter than regular victories, then this win for the Cavaliers stands out. BC had come into this game hot, having seen Quinten Post put up 30 against Miami and then Claudell Harris and Jaeden Zackery busting 20+ apiece versus NET darling Clemson. (Seriously, Virginia finished 3rd in the ACC to Clemson’s 6th, and the Cavs knocked off the team that beat them, and somehow Clemson is secure as a 7th seed while Virginia might get a 10?) That’s a lot of scoring from a lot of angles, yet Virginia held them to 36% shooting from the floor and 31% from beyond the arc.
Plus
Claudell Harris started out scorching, hitting a trio of threes in the first 2.5 minutes as BC jumped out to 9-2 and 11-4 leads. Virginia has not chased leads at all well this season, but there was no cause for worry. Very slow starts are just baked into Virginia DNA and by the 4-minute mark, back-to-back threes by Jacob Groves and Andrew Rohde had given Virginia the lead.
Plus
Virginia’s most reliable scorers this season have been Groves, Isaac McKneely, and Reece Beekman. On this night, the offense was keyed by Taine Murray and Rohde. The game’s signature moment was provided by Jordan Minor. Who had that on their Bingo card? They had the highest box plus/minus scores for the team: Murray was at +10, Rohde +13 and Minor at +14.
Plus
Murray continued his situational excellence for Coach Tony Bennett. Murray was 5/6 from the field and 1/1 from deep. Murray was fearless and attacked the rim relentlessly. Inexplicably, though, Bennett kept him on the bench for the last seven minutes and the entire overtime period.
Plus
Jordan Minor was the player of the game. He struggled, as he always does, from the free throw line, especially late in the game, but Virginia was down 55-53 with four minutes remaining when he entered the game. Up to that point, Boston College’s Post had abused Blake Buchanan and Ryan Dunn to the tune of 23 points on 3/6 shooting from deep. Post wouldn’t score again. Minor was too strong for him and he had the highlight of the game with this block on Post with 1:20 remaining. In overtime, Minor had two steals and a critical offensive board.
Minus
Virginia shot 8/18 from the free throw line. That is a pretty good night from beyond the arc, but it is absolutely atrocious at the charity stripe. This game wouldn’t have been as close if Virginia could have taken care of business at the line.
Read Matt's full game story here: All Hands on Deck for Virginia in Gritty Overtime Win Over Boston College
Plus
With 8.5 seconds remaining in the first half, Bennett called a timeout! He never does that. This game had all the hallmarks of going down to the wire, so every possession counts, and I was pleased that Bennett made this adjustment to his normal strategy.
Minus
Maybe there is a reason Bennett doesn’t call timeouts like this. That was the worst coach-called in-bounds play we’ve seen in quite a while.
Plus
The only thing sweeter than a Virginia win is a Virginia win coupled with a Duke loss, and N.C. State knocked off Duke in the early game. As an added plus, Kyle Filipowski fouled out.
Minus
McKneely and Beekman had, umm, underwhelming offensive performances. They combined to go 5/25 on the night and they each contributed a miss from the pinstripe as part of that 8/18 night from the line. But they are the backbone of this team and each canned their one made three in overtime. It should also be noted that Beekman did have 11 assists to go with just two turnovers for an outlandish 5.5/1 assist to turnover ratio. (BC on the night had 13 assists a team.) And yet Beekman wasn’t valuable enough to make the first team All-ACC.
Minus
Summer can’t get here fast enough for Blake Buchanan and a full season to work out with strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtis. Buchanan has to develop the strength to go to the rim hard and that will be on Curtis. Buchanan is so mobile and he possesses excellent vision, but he’s almost a liability around the rim.
Plus
Virginia is now 10 for their last 11 in overtime.
Game Highlights
Plus
A week after seeing the entirety of the women’s tournament, I got to see this game in person thanks to Official Friend of Cavaliers Now© Bruce, who had one too many tickets. Driving home after midnight is so much nicer after a win. And did I mention that Duke lost? That was the perfect doubleheader.
Next Up: Virginia plays Friday night, also at 9:30 taking on NC State, who did the ACC the favor of taking down Duke. This will be their fourth game in four days, so hopefully the Hoos can take advantage of tired legs. Though, to be honest, they looked stronger down the stretch against Duke.
Break Out the Good Ol' Song!
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