Top 20 teams in this week's AP poll have only lost nine games at home so far this season.
Virginia owns three of those victories.
Having already defeated Maryland and VCU on the road in non-conference play, the unbeaten Cavs added another name-brand pelt to their collection Saturday. Efficient offense and disciplined defense rallied them back from a seven-point second-half deficit at previously surging Notre Dame and enabled them to edge the 14th-ranked Irish 62-56.
The key to Virginia's victory was the remarkable job Malcolm Brogdon did defending All-American candidate Jerian Grant. The Notre Dame star did not score his first basket until a transition layup with less than 10 minutes to go in the game and finished only 2-for-8 from the field for six points, barely one-third his season average.
Ten 3-pointers from Pat Connaughton, Demetrius Jackson and V.J. Beachem kept Notre Dame in it even as Grant struggled, but the Irish generated virtually no frontcourt offense against a pack-line defense designed to wall off the paint and force opponents to hit contested jumpers. A typically high-scoring Notre Dame team that averages 85 points per game shot just 33.9 percent from the field on Saturday en route to its first loss since Nov. 23.
Defense has long been Virginia's hallmark under Tony Bennett but the increased efficiency of its plodding offense has been what has transformed the Cavs from a good team into a top 10 team the past two years. That trend continued Saturday as the third-ranked Cavaliers shot 49 percent from the field and received double-digit scoring nights from Brogdon, Justin Anderson and Darion Atkins.
No Virginia baskets were bigger than the last two field goals it scored Saturday. Anderson hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer to give the Cavaliers the lead for good with just under four minutes remaining and Brogdon drove for a layup that made it a two-possession game with 1:22 to go, putting Notre Dame into desperation mode.
Saturday's win improves Virginia to 15-0 this season and hammers home that last year's ACC champs are again contenders to not only win the league again but also reach a Final Four. Nobody in the country has a better collection of road wins than the Cavaliers, who will be heavy favorites in their next four games before second-ranked Duke visits Charlottesville on Jan. 31.
So many low-scoring games this college basketball season are a result of poor shooting or too much clutching and grabbing on defense.
Virginia's games are often the exception to that, and Saturday's thoroughly impressive win in South Bend was the ideal example.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/14HqMnK
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