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No. 22 Virginia escapes Northeastern’s upset bid behind Reece Beekman’s clutch play

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No. 22 Virginia escapes Northeastern’s upset bid behind Reece Beekman’s clutch play


CHARLOTTESVILLE — Virginia coach Tony Bennett described his team’s game against Northeastern as “one of those smash-mouth games,” and for most of the night, the 22nd-ranked Cavaliers took most of the hits.

At least until Reece Beekman provided a finish to smile about.

Beekman scored 21 points, including the final four of the game, as UVA won a toe-to-toe struggle 56-54 Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena.

“Reece kind of decided to take over the game,” Bennett said.

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Especially when it was hanging in the balance.

Beekman hit a pair of free throws to pull Virginia even at 54 with 52.7 seconds left, then banked in a short jumper with 5.1 seconds to go for the winning basket.

Bennett heaped praise on the Huskies and coach Bill Coen, in his 18th season, but allowed that “we weren’t ready the way we needed to be, and it showed.”

The Cavaliers (9-1), who used a four-game winning streak to get back into the Top 25, were outshot and outrebounded by the Huskies of the Coastal Athletic Association, but forced 17 turnovers and outscored them 19-10 off takeaways.

After each team took a timeout with 3.2 seconds left, Northeastern (4-7) threw the ball away for its final turnover. Virginia’s Andrew Rohde missed the front end of a one-and-one, but that only left time for a full-court heave that wasn’t close.

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“I thought we had a winning effort but just came up a play short,” Coen said. “I thought our team got better today.”

Chris Doherty led the Huskies with 12 points and Joe Pridgen had 11.

Northeastern was 2-32 against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25 and looking for its first win over a ranked team since Nov. 27, 2015, when it beat No. 15 Miami. The Huskies shot 48.1% (13 for 27) in the first half against the NCAA’s top field-goal percentage defense (34.8%) and led 30-24 at halftime. It would have been more if not for the Huskies’ 10 first-half turnovers that Virginia turned into 11 points.

The last one of the night came on a play the Huskies have used effectively.

“I think we just mishandled the pass,” Coen said. “The timing of the pass was off.”

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Northeastern: The Huskies came in averaging nearly 75 points per game and looked the part early, racing to a 16-4 lead while badly outrebounding Virginia. Then they went cold and got sloppy as the Cavaliers’ defense stiffened and a 16-2 run gave them a 20-18 lead before Northeastern scored nine straight.

Virginia: Cavaliers fans groaned for most of the first 34 minutes as Virginia led only briefly late in the first half, but they cheered when Isaac McKneely made a 3-pointer sandwiched around a pair of late shot-clock heaves by the Huskies to put the Cavaliers ahead 45-44. After the second Huskies miss, Beekman fed Ryan Dunn for a dunk that only made the arena louder, but the drama was not over.

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Virginia goes on the road, playing at Memphis on Monday night. Penny Hardaway’s team will be coming off a victory against No. 13 Clemson.

Northeastern remains on the road, playing at Central Connecticut State on Tuesday night.



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Virginia

Virginia Basketball Holds Off Manhattan 74-65 | Key Takeaways

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Virginia Basketball Holds Off Manhattan 74-65 | Key Takeaways


Virginia (4-2) got back in the win column with a 74-65 victory over Manhattan (3-3) on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Here are our five quick takeaways from the Cavaliers’ win over the Jaspers.

Virginia was in serious need of a win after suffering those two humbling losses to Tennessee and St. John’s in The Bahamas. But a convincing and comfortable victory would have been even better and for a while, it seemed like the Cavaliers were on their way to doing just that. UVA led by as many as 15 points in the first half and opened up a 16-point advantage midway through the second half. But rather than putting the game away, Virginia let Manhattan hang around and the visiting Jaspers were in a situation where they were fouling to stop the clock in the final minutes, narrowing the deficit to as little as six points. A win is a win, but this was far from a confidence-boosting performance.

Virginia went with a new starting lineup on Tuesday night, as Andrew Rohde replaced TJ Power. Rohde has been playing very well recently, particularly with his resurgent outside shot, while Power came into this game shooting 25% from beyond the arc this season.

Power initially responded well to the benching, swishing a corner three shortly after he first entered the game, hitting the deck for a loose ball, and coming up with a steal to stop a Manhattan fastbreak. But he wound up playing only six minutes, fewest among Cavaliers who saw the floor in the game. That does not bode well for the Duke transfer.

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Read Val’s Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.

Rohde, on the other hand, had another solid game and was perhaps the top performer for the Hoos on Tuesday night. Though he missed his only three-pointer, which was a desperation off-balanced heave at the end of the shot clock, Rohde finished with a season-high 14 points, two assists (with one turnover), two rebounds, and four steals. Rohde showed excellent feel for the game, getting exactly where he wanted to go and exhibiting some nice touch on a couple of floaters plus a short jumper off the glass. If Rohde is playing like this and his three-point shot continues to be there, this could be a big season for the former St. Thomas transfer.

The main reason why this game continued to be close deep into the second half is because UVA’s defense frequently broke down and gave up open shots to Manhattan, particularly from the perimeter. The Jaspers shot 11/26 (42.3%) from beyond the arc and and seven different players knocked down a three. A couple of those Manhattan triples were well-contested, but the vast majority of them were wide-open. That’s very concerning and shows that this Virginia defense, with its many new faces, is still very much a work in progress.

Virginia’s offense was pretty well neutralized by Tennessee and St. John’s in The Bahamas. Tuesday night against Manhattan was a small step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Let’s start with the good. Five different Cavaliers scored in double figures, including a game-high 18 points from Isaac McKneely, who hit three of his four three-point attempts and went 5/6 from the free throw line. We still think McKneely needs to shoot way more, but we’ll leave that alone for now. Dai Dai Ames scored 10 points and dished out five assists, but fouled out of the game. Blake Buchanan made his first four shots and finished with 11 points and five boards. Cofie made five of his seven shots and finished with 10 points and five boards. The best part of the game was that Virginia had 15 assists on 29 made baskets and turned the ball over only eight times, a vast improvement over the team’s turnover issues in The Bahamas.

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Virginia outscored Manhattan 42-22 in the paint. That looks like a good stat, but it’s also an inevitable stat because of UVA’s size advantage over the Jaspers, whose tallest player in the rotation is 6’8″. Still, Manhattan snared 10 offensive rebounds and scored 11 second-chance points. In The Bahamas, UVA was dominated on the glass and was simply outmatched from a physicality and athleticism standpoint. Nothing we saw from the Cavaliers on Tuesday night did anything to alleviate those concerns.

Up next, Virginia remains at home for another (supposed) tune-up game against Holy Cross on Friday at 4pm at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball

UVA Basketball: Ten Things We Learned About Virginia in The Bahamas

Virginia Basketball Falls to St. John’s 80-55 | Key Takeaways

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Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball

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Virginia vs. Manhattan Live Updates | NCAA Men’s Basketball


Virginia (3-2) is set to host Manhattan (3-2) on Tuesday night at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia. Follow along with score updates, play-by-play, and live analysis for the game in the thread below. Updates will be posted at each timeout in reverse chronological order with the most recent updates at the top of the article. Refresh the page for updates.

As we await our 7pm tip between Virginia and Manhattan on the ACC Network, read a full preview of the game here: Virginia Basketball vs. Manhattan Game Preview, Score Prediction

Virginia has posted its starting five for tonight’s game:
– Dai Dai Ames
– Isaac McKneely
– Andrew Rohde
– Elijah Saunders
– Blake Buchanan

Notably, TJ Power has been replaced by Andrew Rohde in the starting lineup after starting the first five games of the season. Power is shooting 25% from three (4/16), while Rohde is currently shooting 50% from beyond the arc (7/14).

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  • Virginia and Manhattan will meet on Tuesday night for just the second time ever and first time since March 19th, 1993, when the Cavaliers defeated the Jaspers 78-66 in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament.
  • UVA is 9-0 against current members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
  • Virginia’s last game against a MAAC team was back in 2012, when the Cavaliers defeated Fairfield 54-45 at John Paul Jones Arena.
  • UVA is 2-0 at John Paul Jones Arena this season and 3-0 against unranked opponents this season.

Read more Virginia men’s basketball news and content in the links below:

UVA Basketball: Ten Things We Learned About Virginia in The Bahamas

Virginia Basketball Falls to St. John’s 80-55 | Key Takeaways

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Gets Skunked by Tennessee in The Bahamas

Virginia Basketball Falls to Tennessee 64-42 | Key Takeaways



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Suspect steals property from store, assaults employee in Virginia

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Suspect steals property from store, assaults employee in Virginia


A man has been arrested after entering a store in McLean, stealing merchandise and assaulting an employee. 

The suspect has been identified as Calvin Hughes Jr, of Washington D.C.

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Leesburg Pike robbery suspect 

Police responded to the 8300 block of Leesburg Pike in McLean for a commercial robbery on November 21 around 11:00 a.m. According to police, the suspect entered the store, stole merchandise, and assaulted an employee. 

Hughes Jr. was identified and arrested nearby for robbery and is being held without bond. 



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