In his final home game, Reece Beekman was the fitting king of his court, delivering a career-high 21 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals to propel Virginia to a 72-57 victory over Georgia Tech on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.
Isaac McKneely added 16 points as the Cavaliers (22-9, 13-7 ACC) beat the Yellow Jackets for the 12th straight time and clinched the No. 3 seed in next week’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Taine Murray contributed 12 points off the bench for Virginia, which strengthened its bid for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament after losing four of its previous six games.
After scoring fewer than 50 points in four of their previous five games, the Cavaliers made 51.8 percent of their shots from the floor and 12 of 26 (46.2 percent) from beyond the arc.
At the other end, they limited the Yellow Jackets to 40.4 percent shooting and 4 of 21 (19 percent) from distance. Virginia also held Georgia Tech’s top scorer Miles Kelly without a point. He was averaging 14.6 points per game.
Baye Ndongo had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Yellow Jackets (14-17, 7-13), whose three-game winning streak came to an end.
While Virginia receives a double-bye in the ACC tourney, opening in the quarterfinals on Thursday, Georgia Tech enters as the No. 13 seed, facing No. 12 Notre Dame in the opening round on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Beekman was the dominant player throughout. He opened the game with a 3-pointer. Then he highlighted the second half with a steal and a breakaway dunk.
In the first 12 minutes, neither team led by more than three points. Then the Cavaliers went on a 13-3 run and held the Yellow Jackets without a field goal for more than six minutes.
Beekman had six points in the run and Jacob Groves added his second of three 3-pointers as Virginia surged to a 28-18 lead.
In the final 1:35 of the period, McKneely swished a pair of triples as the Cavaliers expanded their lead to 38-24 and gained a sense of security as they’re now 20-0 this season when holding the advantage at the break.
In the final minute, Virginia coach Tony Bennett sent senior walk-on Tristan How into the game and he delighted the crowd with a fallway jumper with 14 seconds left.
–Field Level Media