The Virginia basketball team started ACC play the right way with a 59-58 win against Boston College to close out 2017. With that win, the Hoos have lost just three games in December over the past four seasons. Before the Cavaliers open play in 2018 with a game at Virginia Tech, let’s take a closer look at the last victory of 2017 with the Double Bonus.

Isaiah Wilkins, Jack Salt Won Interior Competition

While the Hoos may not feature an Anthony Gill type of option in the post that can be fed over and over and over throughout a game, they did win the interior battle in this matchup. UVA’s Isaiah Wilkins and Jack Salt combined for 14 points, 18 rebounds, and 0 turnovers, while Boston College’s Nik Popovic and Steffon Mitchell posted four points, 14 rebounds, and four turnovers.

”It’s always good when me and Zay can score a little bit because we’re definitely a guard oriented scoring team,” Salt said. ”So it’s always good when we can help contribute to the scoring.”

Plus, I thought the Cavalier tandem was much more of a factor on the defensive end. Salt, for example, created two of those turnovers by drawing offensive foul calls on Popovic. The clip below is from the first half. BC ran a flare screen action to the corner and then tracked back for a handoff look, but Popovic kept it and then cleared out Salt with his forearm. After the clock scenario, he did it again on the Eagles’ final out of bounds play.

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