For a good portion of Tuesday night’s second half, the fans at John Paul Jones Arena seemed ready to erupt.
No. 25 Virginia just never could quite give them reason to.
The Hoos were able to cut Navy’s lead to a single basket a few times early in the second half. When Jayden Gardner’s put-back made it 51-49, the buzz in the arena started to build. The Wahoos tied it twice—at 53 on a pair of free throws by Armaan Franklin, then on a third-chance bucket by Kadin Shedrick to make it 55-55 with 8:45 in the game—almost bringing the proverbial pot to a boil in the stands. But the Midshipmen never relinquished the lead they claimed for good just five minutes into the game.
A cold spelled doomed UVa to the program’s first loss on opening night since nine years prior to the day at George Mason. The Wahoos had last opened with a loss at home back in 1993 against UConn—a 77-36 defeat that set a new low for the program at University Hall. For Navy, the 66-58 victory was the program’s first win against a ranked opponent since David Robinson led the Mids past No. 9 Syracuse in the 1986 NCAA Tournament.
“I thought they were a lot tougher than us but, yeah, I thought it was a good test for the team,” UVa senior guard Kihei Clark said after the loss. “Obviously, it’s not the way we wanted to just start but it's a long season. So just tell our guys to try to be confident and try to keep working.”
Tony Bennett had been publicly preaching that kind of patience all preseason. His assistants were frank in saying that the Cavaliers would be a work in progress early this season. Tuesday’s performance was evidence of the work that still needs to be done.
A struggle to open the season is nothing new for a Bennett-coached team at UVa, particularly when it’s a team with a lot of new faces or with veterans adjusting to larger roles. The Hoos had three freshmen in the starting five and a fourth in the rotation the night they lost at George Mason to open the 2012-13 season. Two years ago, following the departures of the Big Three from that NCAA title team, the Hoos scored just 48 points in the season opener at Syracuse, but managed to win that game by holding the Orange to 34.
On Tuesday, the new-look Hoos had their issues at both ends of the floor. Navy was able to get out to an early lead by hitting shots from the outside. The Mids started the night 4-for-6 from beyond the 3-point line, with many of those looks mildly contested at best. At halftime, they were still shooting 66.7 percent (8-of-12) on 3-pointers and had staked a seven-point lead.
“They got whatever they wanted in the first half. I mean, shot lights out,” Bennett said. “And sometimes we were there, sometimes we weren't and anytime we broke down, they kind of took advantage.”
The Hoos looked more connected and aggressive defensively in the second half, when they limited Navy to just 24 points on 36 percent shooting. The Mids made just 3-of-9 3-pointers after the break, but the last was a dagger from John Carter that extended the Navy lead to a game-high nine points with just 24 seconds to play. Carter finished the night 5-of-8 from behind the line, ending with a game-high 19 points.
By that point, Virginia had faded thanks to its futility at the offensive end. After Shedrick’s putback tied the game with 8:45 remaining, the Wahoos didn’t score again until just 15 seconds remained in the game. They missed all eight of their field-goal attempts during that drought, plus a pair of Reece Beekman free throws that would have cut the deficit back to two with less than three minutes to play.
UVa seemed out of sorts offensively as the game tightened down the stretch. Gardner appeared to get sped up at times, including one stretch with the game still tied when he was whistled for an offensive foul then turned the ball over on consecutive possessions. Down by two with about five minutes to play, Clark drew groans from the crowd for passing on an open 3-point look before giving the ball away again.
“I don't regret anything,” Clark said afterward. “Obviously, I probably should have shot it because I turned the ball over. But just trying to trying to get my teammates involved.”
And for Franklin, a transfer from Indiana, it was a UVa debut to forget. He finished the night 2-of-11 from the floor, and missed his first six 3-point attempts (including a pair during Virginia’s late scoring drought) before his late make with the game virtually out of reach.
It was the first time in 55 career college games that Franklin, a 42-percent 3-point shooter last season for the Hoosiers, attempted at least 11 shots and made just two, or made just one 3-pointer on at least six attempts.
“He got some pretty good looks and just had one of those nights. There’ll be nights when he’s gonna make them,” Bennett said. “And again, I told our guys, when you get an open shot, I don't care if you miss it. If it's a good shot, you take it with confidence and then you're on to the next. You have to play that way.”
As a team, Virginia shot just 41.2 percent from the floor and 4-of-16 on 3-pointers. Take away Gardner’s 7-of-13 performance in his UVa debut and the rest of the team shot just 36.9 percent (14-of-38) — and that includes a 3-for-5 night from Shedrick and 4-of-8 shooting from Beekman.
“I mean, I didn't shoot it well either,” said Clark, who finished with 12 points on 3-of-9 shooting, including just 2-of-7 from 3. “We all just got to stay confident. Just try to have confidence. I mean, he knows. He puts in the work; we all do. So just tell him to keep shooting because I know he can, he knows he can. It's one game so we just move on to the next one.”
The next one is 7 p.m. Friday against Radford, again in front of a home crowd at JPJ. The Hoos will try to build on Gardner’s solid debut, after he led the team with 18 points and 10 rebounds after arriving as a transfer from East Carolina. Beekman had a strong night defensively, altering shots and disrupting passing lanes.
Beekman finished with six steals, the first UVa player to hit that mark since Sean Singletary in February 2008. He also added eight points, five boards and six assists.
UVa will also try to improve its ball security and limit second chances defensively. Navy turned the Cavaliers’ 14 turnovers into 22 points, and scored 10 second-chance points on 10 offensive rebounds. Just a few more of the weaknesses that were exposed by the Mids on Tuesday night.
“We've got to become a little tougher physically and a little more gritty mentally to last longer in these games,” Bennett summarized. “And that's part of the growing process that we're in.”
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