CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The little things that Virginia Coach Tony Bennett preaches about doing are starting to add up to victories, and the fact that his freshman-heavy team is starting to find its comfort zone is helping a great deal, too.
Joe Harris scored 22 points, seven during a game-ending 13-6 run, and Virginia’s nationally ranked defense slowed No. 19 North Carolina State’s Atlantic Coast Conference-best offense just enough in a 58-55 victory Tuesday night, the Cavaliers’ fourth consecutive victory.
One game after freshman Justin Anderson led the way for Virginia, fellow freshman Mike Tobey had a huge hand in the victory with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
“Mike’s continuing to improve and he’s certainly a threat on the block,” Bennett said, glancing at the stat line for his 6-11 center. “And I love it that he had seven rebounds. That’s a good step. He’s put together three real nice games.”
Akil Mitchell added 14 points and 12 rebounds for Virginia (15-5, 5-2 ACC), including an 18-foot jumper that put them ahead to stay with 3:53 remaining, before the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense (51.1 points per game) closed it out.
“We knew the first half, we didn’t play particularly well offensively, but at the same time we didn’t feel like we played our best defensive half either,” Harris said after Virginia trailed 31-24 at the break. “They kind of just bullied us around and out-toughed us.”
North Carolina State (16-5, 5-3), which arrived averaging nearly 80 points per game, became the 17th team, including all seven ACC opponents, to be held under 60 points by Virginia.
C.J. Leslie, playing despite being ill, led the Wolfpack with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Richard Howell had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists. Leslie missed what would have been a tying free throw with 3:20 left, and when the Wolfpack fouled Jontel Evans as he tried to dribble time off the clock with 26 seconds left, Evansmade them both.
Earlier, Evans drew a foul on a 30-foot heave at the end of the first half, drawing three shots. He missed them all.
“My concentration was unbelievable. I was focused. I went through my progressions, I tuned out the crowd, the score and everything,” Evans said. “Those were probably the biggest two free throws of my entire career.”
N.C. State Coach Mark Gottfried wasn’t pleased that his team fouled in that situation.
“That is not a good play,” he said. “You just can’t make that play. ... We needed to get a defensive stop.”
The Wolfpack never got off a good shot in the closing seconds.
N.C. State also suffered a critical loss midway through the first half when point guard Lorenzo Brown limped off with what appeared to be a left ankle injury. He got medical attention on the bench, went to the locker room, came back and got more attention and wanted to give it a go, but he appeared significantly hobbled and didn’t return.
“Obviously losing Lorenzo is a tough hurdle for our team to get over, but I thought they battled through that very well,” Gottfried said. “We did a lot of things well. We didn’t execute nearly as well as we should have late in the game and we also had some opportunities where we had the ball right around the rim and we just couldn’t score it.” NO. 11 OHIO ST. 58, WISCONSIN 49
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Deshaun Thomas scored 25 points, including 10 during a game-breaking 15-0 second-half run, to lead No. 11 Ohio State past Wisconsin.
The leading scorer in the Big Ten, Thomas took over the game as both teams tried to gain leverage in a typically physical matchup between them.
The victory moved Ohio State (16-4, 6-2 Big Ten) into third place in the Big Ten and dropped Wisconsin (14-7, 5-3) two games off the pace set by co-leaders Indiana and Michigan (6-1).
Traevon Jackson, the son of Buckeyes great Jimmy Jackson, led the Badgers with 12 points in the arena where his dad’s jersey hangs from the rafters.
Jared Berggren added 11 points for Wisconsin.
Aaron Craft had 13 points for the Buckeyes.
INDIANA ST. 68, NO. 15 WICHITA STATE 55
WICHITA, Kan. - Manny Arop scored 17 points, including a celebratory slam in the final minute, to lead Indiana State to a past No. 15 Wichita State, snapping the Shockers’ 19-game home winning streak.
The Sycamores (14-7, 7-3 Missouri Valley) stayed in the conference race with their first victory over a ranked team in five tries this season. Davonte Brown and Jake Odum each added 10 points.
Cleanthony Early had 15 points and Demetric Williams added 14 for first-place Wichita State (19-3, 8-2), which shot 27.1 percent from the field. The Shockers had just six field goals in the second half.
NO. 23 MINNESOTA 84, NEBRASKA 65
MINNEAPOLIS - Rodney Williams snapped out of a funk to score 23 points and No. 23 Minnesota got a much-needed confidence boost with a victory over Nebraska.
Andre Hollins scored 14 points and Austin Hollins had 13 points and five assists for the Golden Gophers (16-5, 4-4 Big Ten), who snapped a four-game losing skid that caused them to plummet in the rankings.
Ray Gallegos scored 30 points for Nebraska (11-11, 2-7), which committed 13 turnovers. The Huskers shot 54.5 percent for the game, but were outrebounded 36-19 and forced just 6 turnovers by Minnesota.
Sports, Pages 23 on 01/30/2013