Virginia’s clash at Haas Pavilion with California Wednesday night was supposed to be an opportunity. It was the first game of a road trip, the Cavaliers’ (8-7, 1-3 ACC) first trip to the opposite side of the country, as far as possible from their early season woes on the East Coast.
But after all that, the Golden Bears (8-7, 1-3 ACC) proved simply to be the better team, cruising to a 75-61 victory over a floundering opponent that has yet to win a true road game in three opportunities.
Ultimately, it was the fouls that sunk the Cavaliers, in the eyes of Interim Coach Ron Sanchez.
“You give a team 33 free throws for a game, and they scored 27 points off of that, it’s a challenge,” Sanchez said. “We have to be smarter. We have to be tougher.”
Sanchez saw something everyone had to notice in Wednesday’s contest — the foul disparity. No California player recorded more than three fouls, and just two were whistled for three. Conversely, there were three Virginia players with four fouls each. Whether this was the result of frustration or of a physical style that the Cavaliers couldn’t hang with was unclear.
The circumstances around the matchup were remarkably different from Saturday’s 20-point loss to Louisville — nearly 2,800 miles and several time zones separated them. In many ways, though, the two losses felt extraordinarily similar. The Cavaliers grabbed an 11-3 lead to start the game thanks to promising offensive production from a spread of Virginia players, including junior guard Andrew Rohde, who recorded 14 points and led the team in scoring. Once the Golden Bears erased that lead, the Cavaliers kept themselves in the game, trailing 35-32 at halftime.
Notably, Virginia held sophomore guard Andrej Stojakovic in check — he scored just four points in the first half. The Cavaliers weren’t exactly firing on all cylinders, but they were playing competitive basketball. The defense appeared primed to have another good game, shutting down California’s star player in Stojakovic and playing at the slow, grinding place Virginia prefers.
But immediately upon the beginning of the second half, the Cavaliers appeared to lose whatever lifeline they had. The Golden Bears came out torrid, ripping off an 8-0 run to give them a 43-32 lead. The game was never close again, and California rolled out of Haas Pavilion with its first ACC victory.
Just about everything that could have gone wrong for the Cavaliers in the second half went wrong. Junior guard Isaac McKneely, the lifeblood of the offense and a key three-point threat, recorded his only three points within the first four minutes of the game despite playing for over 37 minutes. Stojakovic seemed to have no issue dissecting the Cavaliers’ defense for the last 20 minutes, notching 19 more points to finish with 23. Graduate center Mady Sissoko, who was also relatively quiet in the first half, began to terrorize the Virginia offense. Sissoko recorded four blocks Wednesday night — all four came in the second half, and all four felt like individual gut punches, sending the Cavaliers reeling and preventing their offense from establishing any sort of presence in the paint.
There were few bright spots Wednesday, but Rohde was one of them. Forced to create opportunities, he frequently drove down the lane and found the rim, occasionally recording a much-needed bucket to keep Virginia in the game. Alongside Rohde in scoring were a pair of forwards — freshman Jacob Cofie, who scored 12 points, and junior Elijah Saunders, who scored 11.
The Cavaliers will have to find more reliable scorers if they want to be competitive in the ACC. Freshman guard Ishan Sharma, forced into action in his first season on Grounds after the departure of transfer Jalen Warley, recorded nine points on three three-pointers Wednesday. Sharma doesn’t yet possess the defensive prowess that McKneely has developed through four years at Virginia, but he showed flashes of potential against the Golden Bears.
Sanchez seemed to like what he saw from Sharma. That was the last thing he said in a brief postgame conference.
“Definitely pleased with the play of our young guys,” Sanchez said. “Definitely encouraged by the play of Ishan Sharma.”
Sharma and the younger Cavaliers will look to reignite the Virginia offense as they finish out the West Coast road trip against Stanford. A win would give the Cavaliers momentum heading back home for a rematch with Southern Methodist, but a loss would put Virginia at 8-8, teetering on the edge of a losing record. The Saturday matinee will tip off at 4 p.m., with coverage available on ESPNU.
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