Smooth Sailing For Hoos In Season-Opening Win

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Mike Tobey slams home a bucket as part of a 15-point night for the Hoos. ~ Kris Wright

Virginia’s season opener on Friday followed a predictable path. The Hoos struggled just a bit out of the gate, but quickly shook off the early season adrenaline and dominated the final 28 minutes. In the end, the No. 6 Cavaliers cruised past overmatched Morgan State, 86-48.

UVA never led by less than 10 points for the final 32:57 as it got a balanced and defensively decisive win to start 1-0 for the sixth time in seven years. The team was just happy to have this highly anticipated season underway, especially with a win.

“Just being out there and being in JPJ hearing the band, and all the stuff, the smoke, all that stuff just reminds you of the season and so many great memories and this being my last year,” senior Mike Tobey said. “For me personally, it feels great but I know everyone on the team is just so excited to play after practicing for so long.”

Tobey and the UVA front line led the way against an undersized State team that is missing several players to start the season. The senior center tallied 15 points and 8 rebounds in 19 minutes. He made 7 of 8 shots, including a strong dunk in the second half. Other than a 1 of 4 performance at the free throw line, it was exactly the kind of season debut Cavaliers fans had hoped to see out of Tobey.

He wasn’t the only post player to get going against the Bears (0-1). Fellow senior Anthony Gill added 12 points and 7 rebounds in 21 minutes. He missed some interior shots early – the whole team started cold, but eventually calmed down the adrenaline and made shots – but came through with a good second half. Sophomore Isaiah Wilkins had a solid line with 7 points and 4 rebounds, while freshmen Jarred Reuter and Jack Salt kept it going in the final 10 minutes. Reuter posted 8 points and 6 rebounds in his debut, while Salt added 5 points and 3 rebounds.

Overall, the Wahoos just had too much size and too much athleticism for Morgan State to compete against. They trounced the Bears on the glass, 50-21 with 23 offensive rebounds and 21 second-chance points.

“I think at the beginning of the game we had a little bit of the jitters,” Gill said. “We didn’t come out as strong as we should. We weren’t finishing as strong as we should have. Me personally, I wasn’t going in and was finishing soft. I made the [change in] mindset to go out there and finish everything to the best of my ability. We did have a size advantage, so we wanted to key in on that and offensive rebound as best as we could.”

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Darius Thompson produced in his UVA debut with 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. ~ Kris Wright

While the interior attack produced two double-digit scorers in Tobey and Gill, the Cavaliers got solid production from a pair of guards too. Sophomores Darius Thompson, who started in his first career game at UVA, and Devon Hall took advantage of their slashing ability plus some open floor opportunities to post double digits as well.

Thompson’s first line as a Hoo is stuffed: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 0 turnovers. Hall provided a big spark off the bench and tossed up a strong set of statistics as well with 13 points, 4 assists, and 0 turnovers. The duo combined to make 9 of 14 shots. They also teamed up on a half-ending transition play that left the arena buzzing at halftime.

After the Hoos got a stop on defense, the ball kicked ahead to Hall in transition and he quickly got it to the middle. Thompson sprinted down the right side and Hall spotted him on the outside so he lofted a little alley-oop pass that Thompson jammed home. UVA led 40-23 at intermission.

“I saw him,” Hall said. “When Darius runs, he runs extremely fast and extremely wide so I saw him. The guy was kind of playing and jabbing with me back and forth [on defense] so I was trying to figure out if he was going to commit to me. If he was going to commit, I was going to throw it right away. He kind of picked me up early so I just lobbed it up because I knew Darius was going to go get it so I had no issue with that.”

The Wahoos dominated the rest of the game as they worked the ball inside throughout the second half either with the posts or off the dribble. In the second half, the Hoos lived near the rim and made 20 of 30 shots (66.7%).

Defensively, the hosts shut down Morgan State throughout the second half to build a 42-point lead. The Bears shot a meager 30.4% (7 of 23) after halftime and only 34.0% (17 of 50) for the game. The visitors scored 10 points in the final 2:45 to flirt with 50.

“I thought we got some decent shots in the first half,” UVA coach Tony Bennett said. “I think some guys were a little anxious. We didn’t finish the way we should have. I saw we had 14 offensive rebounds in the first half. Our shots weren’t going down. They were decent looks, but some were a little forced. Getting on the glass and getting out in transition were the two things that opened it up for us. We had a nice flurry at the end of the first half. Darius [Thompson] and Devon [Hall] gave us nice lifts. I thought that helped extend our lead. We continued on in the second half inside and were much more inside-oriented against their size.”

Final Stats

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