Virginia beats Georgia Tech for 11th straight time

“I have to get this going. I gotta figure that out. That’s a part of the process for me in figuring that out.”

The loss was a disappointing letdown for Stoudamire’s team who had just won at Clemson on Tuesday. Virginia hadn’t won on the road yet this season but led the final 20:33 of the game.

Tech turned the ball over 13 times and allowed 34 points in the paint. The Cavaliers (13-5, 4-3) scored 21 points off those Tech miscues and shot 50% from the field.

Freshman Nait George, who also had nine assists and went 6-for-6 from the line, and Baye Ndongo led Tech offensively with 15 apiece. The Jackets next host Pittsburgh (10-7, 1-5) at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“Every game is different. Because you did well the last game, it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna do well this game,” Stoudamire said. “You gotta honor the process of being a successful player. You gotta pay attention to detail, you gotta know your scouting report and we had too many breakdowns.”

Tech began Saturday’s affair in total control from the outset. It led by as many as 11 (twice) and got scoring contributions from seven different Jackets in the first half.

Virginia didn’t panic. It scratched and clawed its way back in and tied the game at 29-all when Isaac McKneely, inexplicably left along on the 3-point line on an inbound play, buried a triple from the right wing. Ryan Dunn gave the Cavaliers a 31-29 lead (Virginia’s first of the night) a minute later and then, with 1.8 seconds on the clock, Tech threw away an inbound pass from one end of the floor to another and Taine Murray scooped up the ball and laid in a buzzer-beating shot making it 33-29 at the break.

The Jackets went the final 3:45 of the half without scoring as Virginia ended the period on a 12-0 run.

“We come back out (in the second half), we don’t have any energy,” Stoudamire said. “We talked about having energy, we talked about one stop, one score at a time. We just never were able to capture what we had the first 10 minutes of the game.”

Tech’s scoring drought lasted another 2:06 into the second half. A Miles Kelly 3 from the right wing broke the spell and cut the deficit to 38-32, but Virginia reeled off six points in a row to make the margin 12 with 16:42 on the clock.

Stops continued to be hard to come by for Tech’s defense, and even when it seemed like it had escaped a possession holding the Cavaliers scoreless, McNeely would drain a 3 - like the one he did from the midcourt logo with 8:22 to go, making it 61-47.

The Jackets made a couple valiant efforts at a comeback late, but clutch 3s from Jake Groves with 1:23 left and from McKneely with 40 ticks left erased all doubt.

“We show our inconsistencies early and I thought once we settled in we moved harder offensively, had a bit more patience to work ‘em a little bit, to get the shots we wanted,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “Then defensively we cleaned up some of our coverages and just challenged some guys to guard individually.”

McNeely led the Cavaliers with 20 points, Reece Beekman scored 19 and registered 11 assists and Jordan Minor added 11. Dunn pulled down 10 rebounds to go along with nine points.

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