Brian Fobbs hit a contested three for Towson 46 seconds in, and you’re thinking, if you’re a UVA fan, here we go again.
And then Towson hangs around for a while. The ‘Hoos only led by nine at halftime, and it was still nine under 13 to go.
Virginia, ranked fifth, would eventually seize control with a 20-3 run over the next seven minutes, on the way to winning 73-42, which, you expected that.
What you didn’t expect: Braxton Key getting the start over Mamadi Diakite, actually starting in the backcourt, with De’Andre Hunter playing the stretch four.
You also didn’t expect 5’9” freshman Kihei Clark to basically get starter’s minutes. Clark had earned the praise of coach Tony Bennett for being, reputedly in the words of star guard Ty Jerome, a pest, but we don’t have to take Jerome’s word for it on that anymore.
Clark is a pest defensively, and a ball distributor on the offensive end, registering six assists in 24 minutes.
One other surprise: freshman Kody Stattman, who a lot of us expected to see redshirt, isn’t. He played four uneventful garbage-time minutes.
Jerome had a nice night, scoring 20 points, connecting on 6-of-9 from deep, in 29 minutes, which is too many for him in a game like this, but, oh well.
Hunter had 13 points, shooting 5-of-12 from the floor, and had 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. Also too many.
Way too many: Kyle Guy, who played 32, on an otherwise unremarkable night: scoring eight points, shooting 2-of-6 from the floor, with three assists.
Jay Huff, the 7’1” crowd favorite, got only a minute-plus on the floor in the first half, after giving up two offensive rebounds and committing an ugly turnover, but he eventually got some minutes late, and scored eight points, including hitting a crowd-pleasing three.
Towson, to their credit, hung around for a while. Picked to finish last in the weak CAA, that’s about all you can hope for if you’re them.
Towson shot 31.7 percent and had 14 turnovers, and scored .778 points per possession.
Virginia shot just 37 percent from the floor in the first half, but connected on 59.3 percent in the second half, so, better, and had just, this is not a typo, one turnover on the night.
Edit: not a typo, but a misread. Turns out UVA had five turnovers, and I apparently can’t read. Sorry there.
Still, even five turnovers, not bad.
Also not bad: 1.352 points per possession.
With the win, the ‘Hoos improve to 1-1 in their last two against teams from Baltimore County in Maryland.
Story by Chris Graham
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