All of Sam Hauser's 21 points came off 3-pointers in Syracuse win originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Sam Hauser has been a welcomed addition to the defensive-focused Virginia Cavaliers this year. Through the first 12 games of Virginia's season, the dynamic scorer has gotten on the stat sheet in a multitude of ways.
In Monday's win over Syracuse, there was only one method the Marquette transfer took to get in the scoring column: the 3-point arc.
Hauser took a lot of threes in the 81-58 victory - 13 to be precise - and made seven of them to improve his already impressive shooting figure from deep this season. With those baskets accounting for 21 points, he was one of the leading scorers of the contest. But in a unique fashion, there were no two-point baskets (attempting just three for the whole game) and he did not step to the line once for a free throw.
Every point of Hauser's season-high came from behind the arc.
Up until this point in the year, it was difficult to find consistency during his first season in Tony Bennett's system. Three of his eight contests on the season entering Monday evening saw him make only one 3-pointer or fewer. Against Clemson just one game, Hauser had his best outing of the season going 4-for-5 from deep before topping that.
The transition has been a trying one, especially coming from a program that the emphasis was on offense. Now instead of just scoring, it's being efficient in fewer attempts.
"I think he's getting more comfortable. I think you can see that. He's not passing up a shot when it's there, it's in rhythm," Bennett said postgame.
"We're telling him hunt the shot, be assertive, be aggressive, play off that. He's been obviously a great addition we knew that watching him in practice last year and then he certainly shown that."
Not many players in college basketball ever get the opportunity to exclusively score all their points from deep. The 6'8 forward became the 284th player to record at least 21 points, where they all came from 3-point range, in the past 11 years for the sport according to College Basketball-Reference.
He becomes only the second Virginia Cavalier in that span to hit that threshold, joining Thomas Woldetensae who hit seven threes against Wake Forest last season.
There was a brief period in warmups when it was uncertain if Hauser would even play, much less even have a performance as he did. As he went through his pregame rituals, his back began spazzing and the training staff weighed on if he could play.
It's a good thing he did because it gave him quite an extraordinary night.
"I just said I was gonna go out there, see how it felt. It felt good enough to play so I figured I'd just play and obviously, I mean shot the ball pretty well so maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world I got back spasms," Hauser said postgame.
