For the second straight night, Virginia held an ACC opponent to 47 points. Boston College shot 26.5 percent in a 61-47 UVA win Wednesday night, and had to finish 3-of-5 to get to that point.
The Cavs (18-4, 7-3 ACC) had gone through some well-documented struggles on the defensive end, to a point that eight days ago coach Tony Bennett had his team play zone for several minutes at Wake Forest in a pathetic effort to try to get a stop.
Virginia famously rallied from seven down in the final 14 seconds to win that one, after which a collective light apparently went off in the players’ heads.
The ‘Hoos dominated Louisville on Satureday, holding the Cardinals to 14 first-half points in a 63-47 win that was not as close as that score would indicate.
Louisville shot 32 percent for the game, and then UVA went out and improved upon that number against BC, who scored .723 points per possession for the game, after the Cards scored an equally anemic .758.
This after Virginia had not held any of its first eight ACC opponents to less than 1.00 points per possession all season.
Suddenly, the Cavs can play D.
Oh, and this is a team that, before it found its defensive identity, had still somehow posted victories over Villanova and West Virginia.
Did anybody other than Brogdon do anything?
Malcolm Brogdon had 27 points. Anthony Gill had 10, but made just one shot from the field.
AG was 8-of-10 at the line with 11 rebounds, so he gets props for working hard.
Mike Tobey and London Perrantes each had two makes from the field. Devon Hall, Isaiah Wilkins, Marial Shayok and Evan Nolte each had one.
That was it.
Hall had five rebounds and three assists.
LP had four assists and didn’t turn the ball over in 29 minutes.
Everybody but Jack Salt played good defense.
Star watch: Carter held in check
Boston College leading scorer Eli Carter came in scoring 17.3 points per game and dishing out 4.2 assists per game.
He finished with a modest seven points on Wednesday, on 2-of-10 shooting from the field, with one assist and three turnovers in 31 minutes.
Points in the paint
Virginia didn’t get its first bucket in the paint until the 1:19 mark of the first half on a tip-dunk by Gill. (Yeah, that was his lone field goal of the night.)
For the game, the Cavs scored 10 points in the paint.
No, that ain’t a lot.
Minutes watch
With the big second-half lead, Bennett was able to limit minutes for the starters. Brogdon got 30, Perrantes 29, Gill and Hall 26 each.
Wilkins, saddled by foul trouble, played 16, as did Nolte, who hit a three, to the delirium of the home crowd.
Shayok went 17, and Tobey 12.
– Story by Chris Graham
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