Virginia Basketball Is 10-1 After Crushing Savannah State

Jack Salt had 10 points, 5 rebounds and a career-high 3 blocks as Virginia basketball crushed Savannah State. ~ Photo by Geoff Burke of USA Today Sports

Sophomore point guard Ty Jerome scored a career-high 17 points while Mamadi Diakite and Jack Salt contributed 10 points apiece as Virginia basketball rolled to a 78-47 win over Savannah State Tuesday night inside John Paul Jones Arena.

The Tigers (3-11), who were playing their third consecutive road game against a high-major conference opponent, quite simply were no match for the Cavaliers. Virginia scored the game’s first 12 points and held leads of 19-2, 29-5, and 37-10 before taking a 42-21 lead into halftime.

Savannah State scored the first six points of the second half, but the Hoos slammed the proverbial door shut on any comeback hopes by scoring 19 straight points to seize a 61-27 lead with 10:19 left in the game. UVA led by as many as 43 before securing the 31-point victory.

Virginia dominated on both ends of the court, making 50% of its field goals while the Tigers, who led the nation in 3-point attempts heading into the game, made only 11-of-37 3s (29.7%) and 28.1% of their field goals. Wing forward John Grant, who averaged only 3.3 points per game coming in, drained 7-of-12 3s to become Savannah State’s only double-digit scorer with 22. Leading scorer Dexter McClanahan was the only other Tiger close to double-digits, totaling 8 points on the night.

“We talked about really being alert and ready,” said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett, whose defense forced 19 Tiger turnovers. “You watch them, you can see that they can hit threes quickly. You have to be back in transition and quick to close outs. It was the idea of not just being ready but being good, we talked about that. We got off to a really solid, good start with 12-0 and Ty was making some shots. They usually play zone but we brought them out of their zone, when they went to man. We got some opportunities for some of the other guys and again, good things happened.”

Virginia’s latest non-conference matchup served as an opportunity for many players to see significant action. Ten Cavaliers played double-digit minutes. Redshirt freshman wing De’Andre Hunter and Diakite played the most, getting 23 and 22 minutes, respectively. Hunter produced 9 points, doing most of his damage from the free throw line, where he made 7-of-8 attempts. He also had 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 turnovers and 1 steal.

Fan favorite Jay Huff and seldom used true freshman Marco Anthony played 16 minutes apiece. Huff had 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks before fouling out, while Anthony posted 5 points, 2 assists, 2 turnovers and 2 steals.

First off the bench was graduate transfer point guard Nigel Johnson. Coming of a sterling performance against Davidson in which he scored 26 points, Johnson totaled 2 points, 5 assists and 4 turnovers in 19 minutes versus Savannah State.

Virginia’s starting five of Jerome, Kyle Guy, Devon Hall, Isaiah Wilkins and Salt played well. Wilkins and Salt had 12 of Virginia’s 42 rebounds as the Hoos outrebounded the Tigers by 11. Salt had one of the best stat-lines of his career, finishing with 10 points (4-4 from the field, 2-4 from the line), 5 rebounds, and a career-high 3 blocked shots in 17 minutes. He exited the game in the second half a few plays after a hard fall left the 6’10” redshirt junior in obvious discomfort. The 6’10” redshirt junior appeared to have a lower back injury; however, in postgame comments he said he was fine and believes he may just have a bruise.

UVA’s two leading scorers, Guy and Hall, combined for 15 points against the Tigers. Tonight was Jerome’s night to shine. The New Rochelle (N.Y.) native struggled in Virginia’s five previous games, making only 8-of-26 (30.8%) from the field including two of his last 10 from beyond the arc. He had 10 assists and nine turnovers during that span. Jerome made 6-of-9 field goals and all three attempts from beyond the arc Tuesday night, dishing out 3 assists and committing 1 turnover. Eleven of his 17 points came in the first half as Virginia built a sizable lead.

Asked if this game serves as a confidence builder in terms of his shot, Jerome said: “I don’t want to say that because I do not think my confidence ever waivers. It is just a matter of being aggressive and making the right decisions, and the shots have got to fall.”

“He was sharp tonight,” Bennett said of Jerome. “Obviously, he hit 3-3 from three and did a good job whenever he caught the ball in the middle of the zone. I thought he was sharp tonight. We always talk about finding an alternative scorer and it wasn’t needed as much, but early it was and he did a good job.”

With win no. 10 in the books, Virginia can look forward to a December 22 home matchup with Hampton before an 8-day break. The Cavaliers then have their first ACC test on December 30, when Boston College comes to JPJ.

“I think we have a pretty good feel of who we are,” Bennett said. “We’ll start watching film on Hampton and getting a feel for them. But we obviously know how good the ACC is, that goes without saying, and I think you’ll continue to be in so many tough battles against high level competition and we just have to keep improving. I like the leadership, that has emerged as I thought it would with Isaiah and Devon and Jack, our captains. We talked about empowering them from day one and they have done a good job of continuing to try to find different guys at different times to step up and score. Those are some thing that we’ve seen and hopefully we’ll continue to evolve and develop.”

Final Stats
Game Highlights Courtesy of VirginiaSportsTV
Tony Bennett Postgame Press Conference
Ty Jerome and Jack Salt Postgame Press Conference