UVA basketball falls heartbreaker to SMU on buzzer beater despite Blake Buchanan’s heroics

The Virginia Cavaliers lost their fourth straight game on Wednesday night, falling to the SMU Mustangs 54-52 in thrilling fashion. While the ‘Hoos battled the Mustangs — who knocked off Virginia by 12 back in December — for a full 40 minutes, they simply came up one game short in the final seconds.

Boopie Miller’s buzzer-beating three-pointer lifted the Mustangs over the Cavaliers. Miller hit another three just nine seconds earlier to cut a four-point deficit to one. Then a pair of missed free kicks from Taine Murray opened the door for Miller to hit the dagger as the buzzer sounded.

Despite the loss, Blake Buchanan was the surprise hero for the Cavaliers down the stretch. He showed up in the second half as his effort around the paint helped stem the flow of the Mustangs’ offense at the rim and ultimately nearly won the game for the Cavaliers. He finished with 11 points, 15 rebounds, two blocks and two assists in 27 minutes, marking a comeback since being replaced by Jacob Cofie in the starting lineup a month ago.

“I’m definitely proud of Blake today. His effort was great, even when he was tired,” head coach Ron Sanchez said after the game. “If we can continue to get that effort from Blake, Blake will enjoy his second year. I hope it’s his turn.”

The ‘Hoos and the Mustangs traded runs back and forth for a 27-25 halftime lead. Neither team shot the ball well from the rim over the entire 40 minutes, with UVA going 4-of-26 and SMU hitting just five of its 21 long ball attempts. While Isaac McKneely (six points, 1-for-9 shooting from the field, 0-for-6 from three) was cold all night long, Buchanan, Ishan Sharma and Elijah Saunders carried the struggling UVA offense.

Dai Dai Ames – rejoining the starting lineup after a three-game absence – recorded six of the Cavaliers’ first eight points before going scoreless the rest of the game. Early on, he created separation from defenders late in the shot clock, using his burst to touch the paint and then finish through contact. Where Ames left off in the first half, Saunders picked up by making a pair of triples in the first half.

Critically, Virginia limited their total turnovers to eight. Ames’ presence along with McKneely and Andrew Rohde as another capable ball handler seemed to make the difference.

It was the painted area that burned Virginia in the first half. 24 of SMU’s 27 first half points came inside the paint as the Mustangs infiltrated the interior of the Wahoo defense both via drives from their guards and a few pin-point moments passing between their bigs.

Then Buchanan came to the party. His 10 second-half rebounds were a sign of life for a Virginia frontcourt that has struggled to contend with physicality. Buchanan said after the game that Ron Sanchez challenged each big to grab eight rebounds each. The Idaho native nearly doubled that request with his 15 boards.

While Buchanan converted a couple of tough finishes through contact early in the second and made a couple of nice feeds to his teammates from the perimeter, Virginia’s offense looked like it has most of the season: Tired. The Cavaliers scored just .881 points per game. possession versus the Mustangs and had no one to turn to for most of the game as McKneely struggled.

That was until true freshman Ishan Sharma stepped up and hit the biggest shot of his young career to tie the game at 45 points apiece with 2:52 left. On a possession that otherwise seemed doomed, Sharma pulled himself up at least a few feet beyond the arc and gave John Paul Jones Arena the most life it had in months.

That tally would be topped just minutes later when Rohde intercepted a Mustang pass and found a streaking Buchanan for a thunderous alley-oop to put the ‘Hoos up by three with 1:22 left on the clock. Four consecutive Sharma free throws then gave Virginia a 52-48 lead with eighteen seconds remaining.

“I think ‘Ish’ is one of those guys that has a tremendous amount of competitive juice in him,” Sanchez said after the fact. “I think he wants those moments.”

Despite that, Sanchez pulled Sharma out of the game for Murray after his fourth free throw. After the game, Sanche said the decision was motivated by trying to get the team’s best combination of defense and free throws on the floor for the final few possessions.

“The goal was to put our best defensive group on the floor, our most experienced kind of defensive group that played well,” Sanchez explained. “Taine is definitely part of that group. Combined with one of our better free throw shooting groups. Taine is definitely part of it. Taine doesn’t make a free throw, doesn’t he. That’s who he is. If the situation were presented to me again, I would do the exact same thing, without a doubt.”

Whether it was the right decision or not, the wheels fell off for the Cavaliers in the ensuing seconds.

What appeared to be a momentum-building, typically fun win turned into a disaster when Miller’s last-second lift flowed out of his hands and through the hoop. Virginia was seconds away from the kind of victory the team, coaches and fans have longed for. Instead, the harsh buzz of the net, heard seconds before the (premature) buzzer sounded, provided another cruel reality check about the state of the UVA program.

“I hurt for the guys, I am, because I think they deserved this one,” Sanchez said.

They probably deserved it. Alas, UVA is now under .500 at 8-9 overall and while sitting 1-5 in the ACC. The ‘Hoos will chase the redemption they almost earned versus SMU on Saturday in Louisville.