Everyone inside John Paul Jones Arena inhaled. They had seen freshman forward Ishan Sharma, alone on the wing, receive a pass. A stillness fell as Sharma rose up to shoot, punctured by a solitary shriek.
Then the shot struck home. The fans erupted, all the tension of the last hour pooling into one release, the meager crowd doing its best to account for the banks of empty seats. They would have erupted louder if they knew the shot, with nine minutes left, would be the one to put Virginia ahead for good in its eventual 59-41 victory Thursday night over Bethune-Cookman.
Sharma’s three-pointer gave the Cavaliers (6-4, 0-1 ACC) a 40-37 lead over the Wildcats (2-7, 0-0 SWAC). On the next possession, junior guard Andrew Rohde converted a three-point play. On the next possession after that, freshman forward Jacob Cofie drew a foul and then watched in amazement as his defender batted the ball into his own hoop.
“Man, I have no clue,” Cofie said, when asked how the shot went in. “I want to go watch that again. But I got my two points, so I was happy.”
That summarized the mood for the Cavaliers. Things did not happen the way they were supposed to. But they got the result they wanted, and so everybody was happy.
The postgame brought an upbeat mood. Interim Coach Ron Sanchez looked more than a little relieved, smiling more than he usually does.
“We just had to battle in the second half,” Sanchez said. “That was the message at halftime. Just keep guarding. We’re going to find ways to score. We’re going to find a rhythm.”
Virginia certainly did. It shot 60 percent from the field and 50 percent on three-pointers in the second half, after shooting 28 and 20 percent in the first. It committed only three turnovers in the second half compared to three in the first. It outscored Bethune-Cookman 41-20.
A haze of shock had lingered at halftime, when Virginia trailed Bethune-Cookman 21-18. The score was real, it was right up there on the scoreboard, and yet it could not possibly be right.
But it was. The Cavaliers, without sophomore guard Dai Dai Ames and already down redshirt freshman guard Christian Bliss, looked rudderless. They scored two points in the first nine minutes. They reached the break with more turnovers than made field goals.
Then came a much-needed 15-minute intervention at the half.
“Sanchez came in with a lot of energy to wake us up,” Cofie said. “I felt like a lot of us were asleep and weren’t ready to start the game. And we came out and showed out.”
The players also had a moment at halftime to talk just among themselves. The older guards, Cofie said, helped jolt the younger cohort.
It worked. Cofie scored all 12 of his points after the break, tenacious on the glass and down low. Junior forward Elijah Saunders scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, bullying the flagging Warriors.
Their contributions fitted the roof atop the house Sharma built. The freshman drilled two three-pointers in the first half, the only thing between Virginia and an embarrassing halftime output. He ended up with 12 points, going 4-for-7 on three-pointers, including the one that drew the involuntary shriek.
“You dream about playing in environments like that, on a big stage like this,” Sharma said. “So it felt good.”
Cofie offered a different perspective.
“I feel like 12 points is even nothing,” he said, characteristically drawing laughs from the media. “I feel like he can explode for even more points and catch fire for even more points.”
Asked about the pair, Sharma and Cofie, Sanchez looked down at his box score. He started to smile, then nodded and looked up.
“We got a great lift from the freshmen today,” he said.
Virginia also got a lift, if a symbolic one, from an un-rostered practice player. Eli Bennett, the son of Tony Bennett, dressed for the game, the first practice player in a rotation that will see one dress for every remaining home game. Bennett checked in with 30 seconds left and manufactured a steal on his only possession.
“There are a few things that you can do as a coach that really bring you tremendous joy,” Sanchez said. “And to award a guy a jersey is one of those things.”
Virginia can be joyful for now. But the implications of its feckless first half added to mounting concern. Bethune-Cookman has won just two games, against South Carolina State and North Dakota, and it has played all season without two presumptive starters, graduate guards Gianni Hunt and Antwann Jones. The early struggles portend worse.
Virginia can attribute some of the problems, of course, to injuries. Bliss is still “day-to-day” with a foot injury, and Ames missed his first full game Thursday with an ankle injury. He should be back soon.
“I don’t think it’s long term,” Sanchez said. “I just felt that he was a little sore, and today might have set him back further. So we wanted to be really smart with his recovery.”
There is also another reason Virginia may have seemed sleepy at the start.
“I think some of them were still studying when they were sitting on the bench today,” Sanchez said, chuckling.
The game landed smack in the middle of finals season. It presents a tricky situation for players to manage. It also deters fans.
The team’s struggles, combined with the anvil of finals season and the opponent’s weakness, created a force field around the stadium. Not many students showed up.
More will come, most likely, when Virginia hosts Memphis at 7 p.m. Wednesday. And the players, by then, will be free from finals.
“Last night, I had a lot of homework,” Cofie said. “So I was kind of up late doing work.”
Perhaps the absence of schoolwork will help avert another plodding start. At this point, despite the laughter that permeated the postgame, anything might help.
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