The Virginia basketball team overcame a determined defensive effort from Georgia Tech on Wednesday to grab an ACC road win, something that’s been a rare commodity this season. The Cavaliers remain atop the ACC as a result. The Double Bonus is back for a look inside of the game with the Yellow Jackets.

Trey Murphy III’s Rebounding

Virginia junior Trey Murphy III played a pivotal role in the road win. The eye-catching number was 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting as the Yellow Jackets elected to provide little help off of Sam Hauser or Jay Huff, who lit them up for 40 points in the Charlottesville game. Murphy’s offense, along with Kihei Clark’s 14, provided the needed lift to get the victory.

A little less heralded part of Murphy’s effort, however, was his rebounding. While Hauser (10) and Huff (9) had the bigger numbers on the board, Murphy’s 5 rebounds continued a recent trend. He had 4 defensive rebounds or more for the fourth time in the last five games. Against Syracuse, he grabbed 7 defensive rebounds. At VT, he had 5. Against NC State, he had 4 more. Prior to this recent rebounding flurry, Murphy secured 4+ defensive rebounds only once (at Boston College). For the past five games, he has a total of 22 defensive rebounds.

That makes this easily the best stretch of his Cavalier career to date on the defensive glass and one of the best of his overall career that started at Rice. With the Owls, Murphy posted 21 games of 4+ defensive rebounds. His best five-game run produced 28 defensive rebounds. The breakdown: St. Thomas Tx. – 8, Sam Houston State – 3, Marshall – 6, Western Kentucky – 7, Florida Atlantic – 4. Obviously, that list isn’t the same as ACC competition and keep in mind that Rice played at a pace last season of about 10 more possessions per game than UVA this season.

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