RALEIGH, N.C. – Hampton knew it faced a tremendous challenge with Virginia’s inside game. When the Hoos got their outside shooting going too, the Pirates’ upset hopes became mission impossible.
Top-seeded UVA easily took out No. 16 seed Hampton on Thursday at the PNC Arena, riding an inside-outside balance to an 81-45 victory. The Cavaliers combined 26 points in the paint with 36 points on 12 3-pointers to completely crush the Pirates. That set a program record for 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game.
”They had a heck of a year, Hampton did, to win their regular season and win your conference tournament,” said Virginia coach Tony Bennett, who had a scary first half moment when he collapsed on the sidelines before returning to coach the second half while seated. ”We had a nice balance going inside and outside. That’s a tough spot to be in. … You can’t just become someone you’re not, and I think when we separated a little bit it was tough for them.”
It took a few minutes for Virginia to assert that dominance. Hampton led 10-7 with 13:44 to go in the first half before UVA’s first big run opened up a 20-12 run. The inside part of the equation keyed that 13-2 run as Anthony Gill and Mike Tobey combined for 8 points. Gill added a kickout assist against a double team too when Darius Thompson hit a 3-pointer.
Hampton clawed back briefly to 20-18, but the Wahoos surged again to put any brewing upset thoughts to rest. UVA closed the half with a 20-3 outburst. The outside factor provided the push this time with five 3-pointers in the final 5:27 of the half. Malcolm Brogdon canned the first two, followed by two more from London Perrantes, and capped with an Evan Nolte bomb with 1:41 remaining.
The Cavaliers (27-7) planned from the beginning to work an inside-out attack and it paid off handsomely against the Pirates (21-11).
”That was definitely our game plan going into the game,” Tobey said. ”We knew we had a size advantage. We really tried to push the ball to AG and he really got going good early and he had a great game tonight obviously. I think the outside really kind of opened up once we pushed them inside and guys knocked down shots.”
Gill paced things early for Virginia, scoring 6 of the team’s first 11 points. He posted 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists in the first 12 minutes. That included a nice zone offense feed to Tobey, who made his presence felt as soon as checking into the game. Tobey had a rebound and blocked shot within 44 seconds of entering the game and by the time he took that pass from Gill for a dunk, he had 4 points too.
That senior duo finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Gill led all scorers with 19 points and added 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals for good measure. He made 8 of 13 shots. Tobey, meanwhile, chipped in 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots.
”We had the advantage, huge, in this game,” Brogdon said. ”It was important for us to establish them in this game, but also going forward to have them playing with confidence scoring the ball like that and to have an inside-out presence going forward.”
The outside presence was too much for Hampton too. Brogdon hit 4 of 9 shots to finished with 11 points, while Perrantes added 12 on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Add in Marial Shayok’s and Thompson each knocking down a pair of 3’s – Shayok had 14 and Thompson 12 all season long – and the score got lopsided in a hurry. Shayok had 10 points in just 12 minutes, while Thompson joined Evan Nolte and Isaiah Wilkins with 6 points each.
If the offensive mismatch wasn’t enough to put away the Pirates, Virginia’s defense took care of the rest. The Cavaliers allowed just 30.4% shooting (17-56) overall and 15.8% shooting (3-19) from 3-point range. Hampton got just 6 points in transition after coming into the game relying heavily on its fastbreak offense. Quinton Chievous led the way with 17 points, while Reginald Johnson Jr. added 10.
That effort marked the 58th time in the Bennett era that an opponent fell short of the 50-point plateau. UVA is 56-2 in those games. Thursday’s stingy showing led to the program’s largest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game – the 36-point win surpassed a 27-point vs. Albany from 2007.
”Continuing to get stops – I think that wears on people,” Brogdon said. ”When they’re uncomfortable on offense and can’t really get their typical shots or get comfortable in their offense, it really wears on them.”
