The No. 15 Virginia Cavaliers eked out another close win on Saturday night, knocking off unranked Ohio State, 70-66, in Nashville, Tenn. UVA’s defense shut down the Buckeyes over the final several minutes and capped off the impressive stretch performance with a clutch steal and block in quick succession.
Malik Thomas led the Cavaliers with 13 points, while Sam Lewis added 12 points. Thijs De Ridder had a second consecutive low-scoring night with just six points, but the Cavaliers bench once again
made up for it with 28 points, led by Chance Mallory’s 12 points.
With Ohio State missing one of its top two scorers, this would have been a particularly disappointing loss for the Cavaliers. Instead, they move to 22-3 ahead of the stretch run of ACC play.
Here are five takeaways from the win:
Another slow start, but the Cavaliers responded quickly
A 14-2 Ohio State run in the early portion of this game resulted in an 11-point lead for the Buckeyes. It appeared that Virginia was yet again headed for an uninspiring first-half offensive performance. But, to their credit, the ‘Hoos quickly responded and didn’t allow the game to get out of hand.
A 9-0 run got UVA back within two points, and from there on, the Cavaliers were largely the better team in the first half and even led by as many as five points before the break.
Chance Mallory, per usual, was a key factor in the first-half turnaround, leading the team with seven points, including 4-of-4 at the free throw line. He was constantly putting the OSU defense on its heels, drawing fouls, scoring, and initiating the offense.
Somehow, the 2nd half started much worse.
After not making a field goal over the last 4:16 of the first half, the Cavaliers made only one field goal over the first 6:55 of the second half. That’s over 11 minutes of play without a made shot. In that time, Ohio State was able to retake the lead by six.
The Cavaliers didn’t make their third field goal of the second half until there was only 11:21 left in the game. The offense found a bit of a groove in the following minutes, including a late and time-consuming 13-2 run that took Ohio State’s six-point lead and flipped it to a five-point Virginia lead.
The defense was uneven most of the night, but Virginia leaned on it down the stretch
There were quite simply too many instances of the defense completely breaking down in half-court sets. Add that to the turnovers and subsequent transition defense issues and it combined for a defensive showing that was lackluster.
More specifically, Virginia never seemed to have much of an answer for Ohio State star Bruce Thornton. With their second leading scorer John Mobley Jr. out due to injury, Thornton was always going to have more on his shoulders against the Cavaliers. That said, one might have hoped that Virginia could have forced the rest of the Buckeyes to beat them on more occasions.
All of that was until the final ten minutes of the game. Virginia’s defense stepped up when it needed to and Ohio State went cold, scoring only seven points over the final 10 minutes of the game. The Cavaliers went on a 12-2 run over a roughly night minute stretch before a steal and transition bucket by Dallin Hall and a Ugonna Onyenso swat of a jumper from Thornton effectively clinched the game. It was the fourth and final block by Onyenso in another stellar shot-blocking performance from him.
Virginia’s three-point volume is worth monitoring
The Buckeyes likely came into this game hoping to force the Cavaliers into a lot of contested threes, considering Virginia’s inconsistency from deep and relatively consistent eagerness to shoot the three-ball. However, Virginia went a different direction and shot only 18 three-pointers against Ohio State.
In each of the past three games, Virginia put up at least 30 three-point attempts, including 33 against Florida State earlier this week. Coming into this game, Virginia was averaging 28.5 three-point attempts per game for the season. That number has been even higher at 30.5 per game during ACC play.
Whether it was a focal point put forth by Ryan Odom and the staff or not, the Cavaliers shot a lot fewer three-pointers in this game than we have grown accustomed to seeing. At times, the high volume of threes seemed like the Cavaliers were settling and not doing enough to get the best look. And while this was still a close game at the end once again, the Cavaliers clearly emphasized attacking the interior of Ohio State’s defense which led to easier buckets and a slew of opportunities at the free throw line.
Is it time to worry about Thijs De Ridder?
It’s not, but we mentioned De Ridder’s recent struggles following the Florida State game, too, and once again he produced a less-than-stellar performance on the offensive end. In fact, his six points against Ohio State were his third fewest of the season, behind only a pair of five-point outputs against Hampton and Maryland. He was 2-of-7 from the floor, including 0-for-2 from deep.
This is now three straight games scoring in single figures for Virginia’s leading scorer. De Ridder has totaled only 24 points in the past three games and has shot 8-of-27 from the floor, or 29.6%. The Cavaliers have won all three games, but they have been closer than UVA would have liked.
As Virginia heads into the final weeks of the regular season and critical matchups with Miami, NC State, and No. 4 Duke all loom, the Cavaliers need more from the Belgian big man. Wednesday night’s matchup with 11-15 Georgia Tech provides a potential opportunity to get back on track.
