HARRISONBURG – With a sellout crowd jammed into James Madison’s Convocation Center on Friday night, the Virginia men’s basketball team wasted little time in spoiling the fun. The No. 9 Cavaliers made 10 of their first 11 shots to build a double-digit lead that rarely wavered over the final 30 minutes of a 79-51 victory.
That poised start quickly sucked the air out of the Dukes’ first sellout game in 20 years.
“I thought early in the game being in this environment, there had to be some composure. We talked about not getting sped up. I thought offensively we were moving the ball well, sharing it, getting into the lane, getting rhythm shots,” UVa coach Tony Bennett said. “You saw some unselfishness that way and got good looks early and capitalized on them with some inside-outside. I thought that gave us the jump that we needed to settle in.”
“I thought we came out of the gates the right way. I thought our mindset was right and we were focused and we were poised,” Cavalier guard Malcolm Brogdon said.
After the sizzling start, the Wahoos eventually shot 69.2% in the first half and held a 51-33 lead at intermission. They cooled off a bit in the second half, but still finished at 58% shooting for the game. Virginia’s seasoned trio of Justin Anderson, Anthony Gill, and Malcolm Brogdon paced the strong shooting performance as all three players scored in double figures behind better than 55% shooting.
Gill poured in 15 points in 16 minutes as he was limited for stretches by foul trouble. Gill made six of eight shots and all three of his free throw attempts. Brogdon, who was also perfect at the stripe with a four-of-four shooting night, added 14 points on five-of-nine shooting. In typical Brogdon fashion, he stuffed the stat sheet elsewhere too with four assists and three rebounds. Fellow veterans Darion Atkins added seven points and a team-leading 10 rebounds, while Mike Tobey chipped in six points and six rebounds.
Anderson’s night provided an encouraging start to his season as he moved into the starting line-up after earning the ACC Sixth Man of the Year honor from the media last season. He led the way with 18 points on six-of-10 shooting, including four-of-five shooting from 3-point range. He closed the half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the right corner after he faked a shot and let the defender fly past. Anderson added six defensive rebounds too.
“You don’t want to speak about anything and jinx yourself, but it’s part of the work we put in with a couple of different guys and some different advice I’ve taken on shooting,” Anderson said. “It’s helped a lot. I just hope I can keep it consistent, get back in the gym, get up more reps, and just hope to keep it going.”
Playing without London Perrantes and Evan Nolte (one-game suspensions due to a violation of team rules), the Hoos got a lift from several fresh faces in the win. Redshirt freshman Devon Hall started at point guard and seemed comfortable from the opening tip. He finished with five points, five steals, two assists, and two turnovers. That continued a good opening for Hall, who Bennett said has “really been pretty solid” through two closed door scrimmages and the season-opener at JMU.
The Wahoos got contributions from true freshmen too as everyone but Jack Salt, who is contemplating a redshirt according to Bennett, saw some action. Marial Shayok and Isaiah Wilkins grabbed the most minutes with 21 and 19 respectively. B.J. Stith checked in late and played eight minutes. Shayok tallied six points, three rebounds, and two blocked shots. Wilkins opened his career with eight points, five rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots, and two steals. While both Shayok and Wilkins had some shaky rotation moments on defense, both seemed comfortable in their debut.
“I’m not going to lie, I was nervous sitting in the locker room but once we got out there for shoot-around … it was just a lot of fun,” Wilkins said.
With the freshmen contributing, the upper-classmen looking confident, and a little bit of adversity from the suspensions and loud sell-out crowd, the Cavaliers got what they needed out of the road test to start the season. They found some rhythm on offense and held JMU to 28.3% shooting too.
It wasn’t a perfect beginning, of course, as ball screen defense on pick-and-pop plays and some defensive rebounding lulls will need to be cleaned up in practice for example. The offense stalled at times with a big lead in the second half as some sets lacked crisp movement too. There were also some mental lapses with composure (an Atkins’ technical), fouls (Tobey had trouble with his defensive footwork and positioning en route to fouling out), and turnovers (16 turnovers against 12 assists prevented a truly efficient night).
So some good and some bad, but a 1-0 start.
“It’s a little bit of both. In the beginning when we came out and played really well with the environment they had, but also at the end when we had a couple of defensive lapses,” Anderson said. “We can’t have that. That’s not what our team is based on. That’s not who we are and we need to make sure that no matter what the score is, no matter who we’re playing against, that we’re trying to play to our standard as Coach always says. They did a great job testing us in different ways, in transition, guarding ball screens, and things like that. We also did a great job doing some things and Coach said there were glimpses of promising basketball and as long as we have a better balance of promising glimpses vs. bad spurts, I think we’ll be fine.”
