Following the regular season finale loss at Louisville, Virginia coach Tony Bennett challenged his team from the very beginning of tournament week to get off to “quicker starts.” Thursday afternoon in the ACC Tournament Quarterfinals, the players answered his call.

UVa produced its highest point total and lead of the year against a conference foe at the first media timeout by surging to a 14-2 advantage at the 15:22 mark. That propelled the Hoos to a 58-44 victory and into the tourney semis. Oddly enough, it was the first time Virginia had scored more than 3 points by an under-16 media timeout since battling Florida State in Charlottesville on Feb. 22.

Winning the first 10 minutes was a clear priority in the lead-up to the tournament opener.

“At the Louisville game, we had a terrible start,” Cavalier center Mike Tobey said. “They were stressing all week ‘better start, better start.’ Especially for us, that starts at the defensive end and on offense getting good shots. I thought we did a really good job of that at the beginning.”

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