Cavs Dominate on Defense in Opener

Devin Smith scored nine of Virginia’s first 16 points.

Pete Gillen spent the preseason preaching defense and his players spent the first 10½ minutes of the 2004-05 season playing it about as well as possible. The Cavaliers held Robert Morris without a field goal for that stretch and cruised to an impressive 88-55 triumph in Friday’s opening game at University Hall.

Defense has been a longtime weakness for Virginia, which is why Gillen put a heavy emphasis on that aspect of the game during practices over the past month. That hard work paid off, at least for one night, as the Cavs clamped down on the Colonials, holding them to 32-percent shooting. Of course, for the majority of the first half, that percentage was zero.

Robert Morris missed its first 14 shots before Jason Clark was called for goaltending on a 3-pointer by Mark Anderson. (The shot was falling short when Clark grabbed it, but it had a chance to scrape the rim, so the official made the call.) The Colonials did not actually shoot and make a field goal until two more minutes elapsed. By that time, the outcome was pretty much decided.

Virginia jumped out to a 14-0 lead before the visitors made a few free throws. It was 25-3 after 10 minutes, 49-18 at halftime and 58-18 early in the second half.

J.R. Reynolds scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

“We’ve been waiting for this to come for a long time. All summer we’ve been waiting for this, so when it finally got here everybody was juiced up,” said sophomore guard J.R. Reynolds. “We came out on the defensive end and did the job. That’s all we’ve been focusing on in practice.”

The Cavaliers weren’t shabby on offense, either. Devin Smith scored 16 points, 14 in the first half, while Reynolds knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with 15 points. Elton Brown recorded his fifth career double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Jason Clark had 10 points after getting three stitches over his left eye, courtesy of a head butt in the opening minutes.

Two freshmen also made promising debuts. Point guard Sean Singletary , starting his first college game, had seven assists and three steals. Adrian Joseph scored eight points, including a pair of dunks.

Virginia will get a much tougher test Sunday when No. 10 Arizona comes to U-Hall for a 5 p.m. game.