In its final test before the exam break, the Virginia basketball team looked like it had all the answers Tuesday night at the John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers took control early and cruised past North Carolina Central, 77-47.
That win sent the Hoos into their annual exam break with good momentum. They’ve won four straight games overall to reach 8-1 on the season. The 30-point victory actually marked the third time within a week that UVA claimed a double-digit win after topping then No. 14 Texas A&M 59-47 last Wednesday and Syracuse 84-62 on Saturday in the ACC opener.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett said the consistent approach and resulting performances are the only path for the the Cavaliers to travel in pursuit of success this season.
“We have no other option because if we don’t come out right, it doesn’t matter who we play, we’ll get beat. The second our guys think differently is the second that we’ll lose,” Bennett said. “Our margin of error, like a lot of teams, some no, is awfully slim so we have no other way. There’s no shame in that. That’s just the way it is. Come out ready. Either you’re a team that is building toward being sound and tough on both ends with the right approach or you’re just a pretender. Our guys understand that.”
The Hoos seemed ready to roll Tuesday.
Virginia jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first 3:24 thanks to an early shooting display from Isaac McKneely. First, he drained a 3-pointer on the left wing after Ryan Dunn made a steal and then found him cross court for the open transition shot. The next three possessions all ended the same way as McKneely started firing from all over the floor.
The second triple came from nearly the same spot on the floor as Jake Groves screened a defender in on a quick ball reversal as the possession started. The next two came closer to the top of the key as McKneely came toward the ball for one and the popped free as two defenders went with a cutter instead on the other.
McKneely finished with 22 points to match his career high, which came on Saturday against Syracuse. He got there courtesy of some flame-throwing from 3-point range as he made 6 of 8 triples for the second straight game. That 12-16 clip checks in at a blistering 75%. McKneely has made at least 2 3’s in 7 of 8 games this season.
Moments after McKneely lit it up, Reece Beekman notched a steal that turned into a layup that pushed the lead to 10 points for the first time. Later in the half, UVA surged again with a 17-3 run to secure a double-digit lead for the final 31 minutes. That too featured a couple of quick highlight plays as Blake Buchanan made a steal that led to an Elijah Gertrude dunk and Beekman got another steal that led to a Dunn dunk. Beekman finished with 8 points, 4 assists, and 4 steals.
Many of the first half plays liked that contributed to what ended up being 22 fastbreak points for the Wahoos.
“Of course if you can get ahead and get to the lane and have a good layup or obviously if we force a turnover or a long rebound, take advantage of it and just have good feel,” Bennett said of the early offense. “Isaac got a couple of those transition 3’s and that’s good to see.”
“When he went 4-4 right away and he kept shooting, man you can’t really do anything about that so we were just riding off of his high for real,” UVA redshirt freshman Leon Bond III said. “That kid can really shoot the ball.”
While McKneely got it going early, he wasn’t the only efficient Hoo on the night.
Bond and Getrude joined him in double figures with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Bond made 6 of 8 shots, including an unintentionally banked 3, for his points and added 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocked shots as well. Gertrude made 6 of 11 shots and dished out an assist. Buchanan scored 9 points on 4-7 shooting and chipped in 6 rebounds with 2 steals. Dunn had 6 points on 3-3 shooting as well as 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
As you might expect from those stats, Virginia shot well as a team at 54.2% overall (32-59) and 42.9% from 3-point range (9-21). The Hoos also stuffed the boxscore in other areas. They had 24 assists as Andrew Rohde led the way with 6. They had 7 steals, won the rebounding battle 40-30, and blocked 6 shots. UVA also picked up 36 bench points just days after getting 0 against Texas A&M.
North Carolina Central, meanwhile, couldn’t consistently find the touch offensively. The Eagles shot 29.4% overall (15-51) and 17.7% from 3-point range (3-17). Shorthanded with several players out, the visitors got most of their scoring from three sources. Perry Smith Jr. posted 12 points, while Guy Fauntleroy and Josh Smith had 11 and 10 respectively. Po’Boigh King, NCC’s leading scorer, finished with 4 points.
UVA is now 112-2 in the Bennett era when allowing fewer than 50 points and 96-10 in non-conference home games during his tenure.
“You play against the possessions, you play against the game, you respect the opponent – they had I think four guys out, three or four of their key guys, and that’s tough,” Bennett said. “You knew that so I just didn’t want them to get [complacent], we were kind of charting are they shooting contested shots so we challenged them with a few things.”
Cavs seem to be coming together and the article reflects that trend .