Beekman’s clutch three stuns Duke: three takeaways

Reece Beekman caught the ball on the wing with three seconds remaining and Virginia trailing by two. Hands reached out at him from the Duke student section. The Virginia bench jumped to its feet. The noise pouring from the stands of Cameron Indoor Stadium dropped a couple decibels.

Beekman, relaxed as usual, squared up to shoot as Duke’s Paolo Banchero flashed across at him. But by the time Banchero got there, it was too late.

Virginia’s silent killer had already released the shot. 

Beekman saw the ball splash through the net from his vantage point on the floor, where he had fallen in an attempt to get a foul called. Kihei Clark raised his arms skyward and leaped into the air. Armaan Franklin and Jayden Gardner bounded down the court like little kids on Christmas morning. The Virginia bench erupted.

And Beekman? He skipped down the court toward his celebrating teammates, a euphoric smile lighting up his face. 

If the win over Miami was cathartic, breaking an interminable pattern of oscillating wins and losses, this was something else altogether. Tony Bennett and his average roster—a composite of transfers, veterans and former walk-ons—had taken down Coach K and his bevy of five-stars. In Cameron.

The Hoos had stunned the college basketball world. Here are three takeaways.

Stifling defensive performance

This season’s defensive regression has been well-documented. For the past decade or so, Virginia has repeatedly been among the best defensive teams in the nation, but the Hoos seemed to have lost that essential component of their identity. They even fell out of the top 100 of the KenPom defensive efficiency rankings.

KenPom will be scrambling to move Virginia higher up that list after what the Hoos did to Duke. 

It was a complete defensive performance from beginning to end. Jayden Gardner locked down Paolo Banchero, who attempted just one field goal in the second half. Beekman held 221-pound Trevor Keels to 27% shooting. Duke’s AJ Griffin, responsible for 27 points on Saturday against North Carolina, scored just 2.

The Hoos fought their way to 32 rebounds, and wrested 10 steals from Blue Devil hands. They fought for every inch of ground against their taller, stronger opponents.

And that spirit proved indomitable. When Beekman missed a layup late in the second half, he turned around and stole the ball right back from an unsuspecting Jeremy Roach, finishing on the second try and drawing a foul to boot. 

It was this impregnable defense that Virginia’s been missing all season. The stingy defense is what got Tony Bennett’s Virginia on the map; it could be what gets it back into the Tournament.

A team victory

Malachi Poindexter walked onto Virginia last season. He probably didn’t expect he’d be checking in against Duke a year later.

But there he was, playing 14 minutes and an important role in the upset victory. Poindexter’s only contributions to the box score were 2 rebounds and a turnover, but his 14 minutes were huge in allowing Kihei Clark and Reece Beekman a rest.

Poindexter’s role epitomizes the way Virginia won this game. They did it as a team, every player chipping in to help secure the win. It says something that halfway through an article about the game, there’s still no mention of Kadin Shedrick’s career high in points—there are so many other things to talk about first. 

While Shedrick was scoring 16 points, Kihei Clark was leading a Virginia attack that looked like a well-oiled machine. The Duke students in the front row with “Kihei is short” spelled out on their chests were regretting the jest by game’s end. 

Then there was Armaan Franklin, who scored 11 points, quieting the crowd at crucial junctures with his nifty floaters. Francisco Caffaro ground it out in the trenches, with 8 points and 6 boards, and even Kody Stattmann had a couple big points.

The normal blueprint for a road upset is to have one guy get hot and let him take over. Virginia didn’t need to resort to that tactic. It had a whole team of those guys.

Big picture

“My goodness, the silence is deafening,” screamed UVA radio announcer John Freeman in the immediate aftermath of Beekman’s shot. A hush had fallen over Cameron Indoor Stadium, punctured only by the jubilant shout rising from the pocket of Virginia fans behind the Wahoo bench.

The silent Duke fans were left to consider the impact Beekman’s shot would have on Duke’s battle for premium NCAA Tournament seeding. The elated Virginia fans were more concerned with whether that shot would be enough to get their team back into the Tournament discussion.

It most certainly did.

Virginia is now 15-9 on the season and 9-5 in the ACC, just a game back from the top of the conference standings. The front cover of its Tournament resume looks pretty solid: a neutral-site victory over 13th-ranked Providence, a 13-point home win over Miami and now a road win over seventh-ranked Duke. 

Some damaging losses mar that resume, but Virginia has put itself in a solid spot. The Hoos have looked like a top-25 team in their last two games. 

Now they have to prove it.

Virginia is back in action on Saturday, with a home game against Georgia Tech. The game will tip at 4 pm EST and air on ESPN2.

Image – Virginia Athletics