Virginia grabbed another convincing win at the John Paul Jones Arena earlier this week when it took down rival Virginia Tech, 81-59. The Cavaliers remained undefeated at 15-0 with the victory, which set up a showdown with Duke on Saturday.

The Hoos picked up contributions across the board, including another big game from De’Andre Hunter. He poured in 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting to lead all scorers. The Double Bonus returns to look at that performance and more.

Clark’s Continued Impact

During the lead-up to the season, UVA coach Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers spoke many times about the defensive ability of freshman guard Kihei Clark. Specifically, in Bennett parlance, there was talk of how Clark can ‘heat up the ball’ by defending the dribbler. Wahoo fans saw that early this season and it continued right into Tuesday night’s game with Virginia Tech.

Clark logged 30 minutes of playing time and frequently picked up Tech’s Justin Robinson fullcourt to bother the basketball. Clark pestered and poked at the dribble, slid his feet, and generally was a nuisance. A couple of defensive moments that clearly flustered Robinson happened during the contest. In the first half, Clark knocked the ball free for a moment near halfcourt and dove on the floor to try to get to it. He didn’t get the ball, but that moment was sort of the start of Robinson’s long night dealing with the defense. In the second half, there was one possession where Robinson sped up his dribble to get Clark moving and then veered right into the freshman to bump him heavily.

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