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Devin Smith
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Virginia beat an NCAA tournament team by 92 points Friday night. OK, so it was a Division III NCAA tournament team in an exhibition game of questionable value. But even given the level of competition, it was an impressive performance by the Cavaliers as they crushed little Lehman College, 121-29, at University Hall.
They ran, they rebounded, they defended, they played unselfishly and they shot the lights out. Hard to find fault with any of that. As a team, Virginia shot 56 percent, including 50 percent from 3-point range, grabbed 55 rebounds, dished out 32 assists and forced 28 turnovers.
Seven Cavs finished in double figures, led by Gary Forbes, who scored 21 points on 9-for-9 shooting. Devin Smith produced 17 points, while Elton Brown had 14, Jason Clark 13, Jason Cain 13, Adrian Joseph 11 and Sean Singletary 10. All 13 players who suited up for Virginia scored except for T.J. Bannister, who attempted just one shot and delivered a game-high nine assists in 19 minutes.
“I thought it was a good showing,” said UVa coach Pete Gillen. “I thought I was most pleased that we played good defense and we were unselfish.”
Notes, Quotes and Observations
Joseph, Singletary and Tunji Soroye (eight points, seven rebounds) made promising debuts in their first game at U-Hall. Singletary made both of his 3-point shots and played a nice floor game with seven assists and two steals. Joseph looked explosive from the wing and had the dunk of the game on a fast break in the second half.
Singletary and Joseph also hooked up for a highlight-reel play in the first half. Off a Lehman turnover, Singletary raced downcourt and lobbed the ball over his head to the trailing Joseph, who caught it and made a finger roll in one motion. In the second half, Singletary had an uncontested layup but tried passing the ball off the backboard for Joseph, but that connection went awry.
“I thought it was a good game for our confidence. Everybody was happy and everybody was smiling. We’re going to see a lot more of that this year.” — Gary Forbes
Lehman only had one player taller than 6-6 and couldn’t match up inside with the Cavaliers. As a result, UVa’s post players dominated. Brown, Clark, Cain and Soroye combined for 48 points on 20-of-28 shooting and had 32 rebounds (compared to 20 for Lehman’s entire team). It was an especially encouraging performance for Clark and Cain, who didn’t offer much offense last year. Clark scored 11 points in the game’s first 12 minutes, mainly on putbacks and dunks. Cain, looking taller and stronger than last year, was aggressive crashing the boards (nine rebounds) and had two dunks, a 3-pointer and a nice spin move and bank shot,.
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Jason Clark
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“He’s a monster. He’s a very good player. I love his toughness. He’s much better. He doesn’t know how good he can be.” — Gillen on Jason Clark
Devin Smith, who underwent offseason back surgery, didn’t appear to be limited physically. He went on a personal 10-0 run in the first half, converting a layup, a dunk and two 3-pointers in a 90-second span. He scored all 17 of his points in the first half as the Cavaliers built a 69-14 lead by the break.
“This year our gameplan is to press and run a lot. Unfortunately, their team wasn’t as good as we expected, but we played hard and played well.” — Sean Singletary
Sophomore guard Tryshan Ravenell, who recently joined the team as a walk-on, scored the game’s final three points as his teammates tried to get him in the boxscore. He made one of two free throws, then drained a baseline jumper with four seconds left.
“I think we got more out of it defensively than offensively.” — Devin Smith
Donte Minter did not play for the Cavaliers because of a lingering knee injury, but Gillen said Minter should be available for the second and final exhibition game next Friday against Marymount University.
