Turnovers Haunt Eagles in UVA Defeat
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Publisher
Not many teams play at a slower offensive pace than Boston College men’s basketball. Virginia is one of them. In fact, Tony Bennett’s team ranks last in the country in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom.
UVA sacrifices offensive rebounds to prevent transition scoring. And the Cavaliers force opponents deep into the shot clock while taking their sweet time in their halfcourt offense.
Every possession matters against UVA. BC botched too many Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena.
“In a 57-possession game, to give away 14 possessions is really hard,” head coach Earl Grant said.
BC’s 14 turnovers resulted in 20 Cavalier points—15 of which came in the first half. UVA took the lead toward the end of the opening frame and never really budged, holding on for a 67-55 victory.
Bucking a recent trend, the Eagles (9-12, 4-7 ACC) started strong offensively, hitting three of their first five shots. DeMarr Langford Jr. connected on a jumper, James Karnik found TJ Bickerstaff on the baseline for two and Karnik backed down UVA (13-9, 7-5) center Francisco Caffaro in the post.
Then, after a pair of Jaeden Zackery free throws, Langford beat the shot clock with a 3-pointer to stake the Eagles to an 11-4 advantage. But that’s when Jayden Gardner took matters into his own hands. The physical guard drew three early fouls and, when all was said and done, ended up 7-of-7 at the line. Gardner was integral in forcing BC into foul trouble.
Before the midway point of the opening frame, Bickerstaff and Post both had two personals. The only two Eagles buckets during a 13-6 UVA run were 3-pointers from Brevin Galloway. The first was off balance and launched from NBA range before the shot clock expired. It snapped a streak of 20 consecutive misses from outside for the College of Charleston grad transfer.
Galloway’s second triple tied the game at 17-17. Except it wasn’t too long after that the Cavaliers made their game-defining 7-0 surge. Following back-to-back dunks from UVA forward Kadin Shedrick, veteran guard Kihei Clark converted a Kanye Jones turnover into a 3-pointer to put his team up, 26-19.
“We had a patch where we needed to pass more and dribble less,” Grant explained. “They went and pressured us full court. So a few of our decisions got sped up. The crowd got into it a little bit, and we just lost some composure and some poise.”
Karnik got BC within three with a layup and bank shot from 10 feet out, but Clark got the last laugh, using a pair of hesitation moves to get by Makai Ashton-Langford and Karnik before landing a floater at the buzzer to offer UVA a 30-25 halftime cushion.
It got bigger at the start of the second period, courtesy of a 6-0 Cavaliers run. Armaan Franklin and Gardner, who combined for 29 points in the win, fueled the push with consecutive jumpshots.
BC, which finished 5-of-21 from 3-point land, was struggling to shoot over UVA’s pack line defense. The Eagles missed their first four shots of the second half. Three of those were from long range.
Bennett’s squad continued to push the pedal to the metal, extending its lead to 42-27. Reece Beekman—who piled up seven assists, two steals and a block—delivered a perfect lob pass for Shedrick, who laid a shot in while being fouled by Bickerstaff (his fourth personal of the day).
Karnik was BC’s best offense for much of the second half. After Clark got a Euro step, reverse layup to go, the Eagles’ center scored or assisted on the next three baskets, even going high to low to set up Quinten Post in the post.
Zackery cut BC’s deficit to 10 with a 3-pointer, however, Franklin answered with a triple of his own. Later, though, the Eagles stitched together an 6-0 run to pull within nine points with 2:24 remaining.
The game was decided at the 1:55 mark. Zackery went up for a layup and leaned into Shedrick, drawing contact in the process. His shot fell but didn’t count. Instead of nabbing an and-one, Zackery was tagged with a flagrant one offensive foul for seemingly inadvertently elbowing Shedrick.
Shedrick went 1-of-2 at the free throw line. And although UVA turned it over on the subsequent possession, and Galloway made it an eight-point game at the charity stripe, the Eagles didn’t get any closer than that.
The dagger was Gardner collecting two of his own misses and putting back a third shot to lift the Cavaliers to an 11-point lead after making the and-one free throw.
It was BC’s fifth game in 10 days. Three of those contests came on the road. It was a gauntlet for Grant’s team, which is improving but still lacks reliable shooting away from Conte Forum.
The defensive identity and commitment to Grant’s game plan, on the other hand, has been evident.
“I don't remember too many games in the five-game stretch where we didn't have great effort,” Grant said. “So definitely need to rest some. But we also gotta continue to try to get better.”
