GREENSBORO, N.C. – Virginia didn’t put together a flawless 40 minutes in its ACC Tournament opener on Thursday, but it pieced together a solid defensive effort with a strong start offensively en route to a 58-44 win. That puts UVa on the doorstep of back-to-back 30-win seasons for the first time in school history. It’s time for the Double Bonus!

Perrantes’ Passing

UVa’s London Perrantes set the tone for the offense in the first half with some pinpoint passing out of the gate. Then he got going in the assist column by getting into the paint and finding teammates for easy buckets, though some of those passes required a lot of trust in those teammates to go get the ball.

“They were just playing us really hard and me and Malcolm were trying to get in the lane and get by,” Perrantes said. “Once you got by, the big man would step up or something and I just tried to make the right pass. They finished really well against the big guys and we had some guys knock down open shots to spread out the defense a little bit and that helps.”

Perrantes finished with 9 assists in the game. He had 6 assists as the Hoos made 12 first half baskets. He followed that up with two key helpers in the second half: Evan Nolte for a 3-pointer and Mike Tobey for a dunk on an inbounds play (more on that below). Perrantes had 3 assists on UVa’s 7 made baskets in the second half.

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