With Justin Anderson out for 4-6 weeks with a broken finger, the Virginia Cavaliers have been searching for a new identity. Their scoring has took a massive blow, and are now relying on London Perrantes to make up for the slack, as well as new starter Evan Nolte. There is one thing that they will continue to hold dear to, their pack-line defense that has took college basketball by storm. Today against a hungry and desperate Wake Forest squad, the Cavs caused 11 turnovers, 4 of which came from Malcolm Brogdon steals, to barely hold on at home, 61-60.
Wake Forest was able to get 18 points, all of them coming from 3-pointers, from Kostantinos Mitoglou to key their offense. The energetic point guard Codi Miller-McIntyre was all over the floor helping the Deacs, attaining 13 points and 8 rebounds. Cornelius Hudson came off the bench to provide a spark, scoring 12 points, 3-5 outside shooting. 12-22 from the free throw line hurt Danny Manning's team's cause, however.
As for Virginia, which is slowly becoming more of an inside team without Anderson, the Cavs used Anthony Gill in the paint to attack the Wake defense Gill had 19 points to lead all Cavaliers in scoring, grabbing 6 rebounds in the process. Mike Tobey and Darion Atkins contributed down low as well. As for the backcourt, they are having to rely on London Perrantes to contribute in scoring, and he could not find his outside stroke, going 0-4 from beyond the arc. Evan Nolte lacks the explosiveness that Justin Anderson would have supplied, but Nolte did knock down two key threes.
With 17 seconds left in the game, Virginia held a 2 point lead, but Codi Miller-McIntyre was heading to the line to shoot 2. He converted the first, but missed the 2nd. WF got a massive break as Miller-McIntyre garnered the rebound on his shot, and they subsequently called a timeout. With time running out and the Demon Deacons down one, Miller-McIntyre was trying to get by Malcolm Brogdon, but turned the ball over right into the grasp of Brogdon, his 4th and most important steal of the day, clinching the Virginia win.
The Virginia win is their 23rd on the year, now 11-1 in the challenging ACC. Wake Forest falls to 12-14, as their season has slowly fell apart in conference play after a promising start. The Demon Deacons will get another ultra-tough matchup on Tuesday when they travel to South Bend to tussle with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. UVA will invite the hot Pittsburgh Panthers to town on Monday.