Virginia Basketball Team Shoots Past Davidson

Virginia is 9-1 this season.
Nigel Johnson and the Hoos picked up their ninth win of the season. ~ Kris Wright

The Virginia basketball team shot a high percentage from everywhere in its return from the exam break on Saturday and that helped propel the Hoos past Davidson, 80-60. The Cavaliers climbed to 9-1 with the win.

Despite being absent from the court for 10 full days between games, UVA shot 50% overall, 52.6% from 3-point range, and 73.7% from the free throw line in the victory. That was more than enough shooting prowess to overcome an 18-11 deficit after the first 11 minutes of action.

“Three guys – with 22, 20, and 19 [points] – they made a difference. I really liked how assertive they were,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “And six turnovers – Davidson is not a high-pressure defensive team, but we took what they gave us. I thought we had just the right pace, and it always is good when you make 10 of 19 threes.”

Indeed, a trio of Wahoos helped beat the Wildcats at their own strategy as UVA took care of the 3-point battle on both ends to get the win.

On the offensive end, Nigel Johnson, Devon Hall, and Kyle Guy combined to make 10 of 14 triples, a sizzling 71.4% performance. Johnson and Guy made three of four attempts each, while Hall knocked down four of six. That shooting lifted each of those players to the top of the scoring column.

Johnson led all scorers with 22 points, just one shy of his career high. He made seven of 10 shots overall and dished out three assists as well. His day was going so well that an attempted alley-oop pass got deflected and went in the basket instead. Plus, he got a steal and a run-out dunk that emphatically punctuated the win late.

Hall, meanwhile, had it going from everywhere. He made seven of 12 shots overall en route to a career-high 20 points. He stuffed in five assists, five rebounds, and a blocked shot for good measure too.

Virginia is 9-1 this season.
Devon Hall posted a new career high with 20 points. ~ Kris Wright

While Davidson coach Bob McKillop knew that Johnson and Hall were talented players, he didn’t expect both of them to get going from 3-point range at quite that rate.

“Well he’s a fifth-year senior out of Rutgers. He had a prolific high school career. We knew he was very good, but we didn’t think he’d make the threes he did,” McKillop said of Johnson.

“He’s a jack of all trades, and what he did today was he extended it to the three-point line,” he added about Hall. “He normally doesn’t shoot that percentage. It’s something about shooters when they get in a rhythm and they feel good, they make them. He’s a great step back shooter and he showed that today.”

The third Guy didn’t surprise anyone really with his scoring or shooting. After forcing some tough drives early in the game, the sophomore slinger settled in to put up 19 points. He made six of 13 shots to go with three rebounds and one assist.

One thing to seemed to help Guy, along with the rest of the team, slice into the Wildcats’ defense to the tune of 56% shooting (14 of 25) after intermission was a slight adjustment to the offense. The Cavaliers started to curl heavily off of baseline screens, used dribble motion against contested catches, and even mixed in some weave action to get into the paint.

The small changes led to several shots in the paint, drop-down passes that created shots for others, and some free throw opportunities.

“We just thought that we needed to try to be aggressive in that way,” Bennett said. “We moved a couple guys, our screeners, and tried to open up the lane, and either attack it off the bounce or react to the way they were playing us. At first, when we set our screens they would short cut them, so we were trying to work the baseline. When they started chasing our screeners, similar to what they do, we started trying to get to the elbows and make some plays, look for the shots or spread it out.”

While the offense kicked it up a notch, the defense didn’t completely shut down Davidson. The Wildcats shot 48% overall (24 of 50) after all. The Hoos, however, did take away what really makes the visitors go – the 3-point barrage.

Davidson entered the game leading the nation with 13.1 3-pointers made per game on 37.9% shooting. Against Virginia, the Wildcats managed to make eight of 26 attempts for a 30.8% shooting night. That tied their lowest number of 3-point makes on the season and their third lowest shooting percentage this season from behind the arc.

Throw in 13 turnovers, in part from seven steals by the hosts, that led to 15 points for Virginia and that was enough for the Hoos to separate on the scoreboard. Peyton Aldridge led Davidson with 20 points, while Oskar Michelsen tallied 12. Jon A Gudmundsson added 11 points and six assists.

“You know, I’ve been around a very long time, and Princeton’s offense used to wear people down,” McKillop said. “[Tony Bennett] combines his offense and his defense – together they wear you down. So, you’re chasing those screens, chasing those screens and chasing those screens and … they just run you off screen after screen, and are pretty darn patient about it. And then you go down to the offensive end and you’re fighting for every possession. So, yes, this is a very dangerous team this year, they’ve always been dangerous, but I think in particular this year they are going to be very dangerous.”

Virginia Basketball Final Stats