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This game is on Saturday, 2/28/2015. Dont want people confused.
Here we are, game 2 against our hated rivals. Coming off a tough loss to the #4 team in the country. Having to go on the road to face the #2 team in the country. Road losing streak at 18 games. UVA missing their previous top scorer in Justin Anderson. Fun recipe for a Saturday afternoon of basketball in the ACC.
We all know how the last one went down. Giving up the 10 point lead over the last eight minutes. Allowing UVA to escape with the win 50-47. We need to hope that we can replicate the effort and better the final results. Wake Forest had UVA escape 61-60 in their first meeting, missing a chance at scoring as the clock expired. In their second contest this week, UVA more than doubled up Wake, 70-34. This we cannot afford to let happen.
Since Justin Anderson went down, the Wahoos have played a much smoother team oriented offensive game which has led to three straight double digit wins. I dont want to say addition by subtraction with Anderson, because UVA will need his big body down the road in the tournament, but with their less challenging opponents lately, having a more open offense without much slip in defense has worked for the Cavaliers.
So who are they led by now? Malcolm Brogdon (#15), 6'5, 215 lbs junior guard has stepped up and now leads the Cavs with 13.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 2.7 apg.
Joining Brogdon in stepping up has been Anthony Gill(#13) 6'8, 230 lbs junior forward, averaging 11.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg and shooting 57% from the field. Over the last three games these two have accounted for 30 of 61, 23 of 51, and 20 of 70 points for the Cavs. The last game was in hand early so the Wahoos were able to play their bench in significant minutes.
Surprisingly absent since Anderson went out is London Perrantes, (#23) 6'2, 183 lbs sophomore guard, who was instrumental in their comeback against us and has played the role of second half spark plug almost all season for the Cavs. The last three games he has a total of 13 points, 9 assists. He has been averaging 5.9 ppg and 4.4 apg over the season.
In his wake has been another forward playing a larger role for this team in Darion Atkins, 6'8, 234 lbs senior, who had been averaging 6 ppg, 4.5 rpg and 1.1 bpg, but in the last three contests has put up 9 and 6 with 4 blocks, 11 and 2 with 1 block, 10 and 2 with 2 blocks.
Beyond these three players, it has been a combination of the rest of the roster to fill holes as needed. If there was one to keep an eye on Saturday, its Marial Shayok, (#4) 6'6, 200 lbs guard who was a former commit to Buzz at Marquette. Shayok has had several good games off the bench, putting up 20 points in the last three games, when he was previously averaging 3.5 ppg.
If we can hit our shots like we did against Duke, than we could win this game by double digits. If we slip back towards our average, than this game comes down to the wire. If we let the Wahoos get in our head early, than this game could look like the second Wake game. I expect to see somewhere near our average. These guys are coming off a tough loss, they wont have the Cassell crowd to feed off of and its a quick turnaround. I am afraid that come the second half, our guys are going to have nothing left in the tank and things could get ugly in that case. Hopefully they find a second wind, and have that outside touch.
Tech 57 - UVA 56
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