Eighth-ranked Virginia led by 12 at the half, and used a 15-0 second-half run to put away Virginia Tech, in a surprisingly easy 78-52 win on Wednesday in Blacksburg.
UVA (13-1, 2-0 ACC) never trailed, jumping out to an early 10-point lead eight minutes in and leading by as many as 15 in the first half before going into the break up 37-25.
The Hokies (11-4, 0-2 ACC), coming into the game as the best shooting team in the nation, at 53.2 percent, never could get its offense going against the nation’s best defense, shooting 36.2 percent from the field, and committed 16 turnovers, which the ‘Hoos turned into a 23-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
Tech’s leading scorer, Ahmed Hill, averaging 15.6 points per game coming in, had just four points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field in 29 minutes.
Justin Bibbs, averaging 14.6 points per game, had four points on 2-of-8 shooting in 31 minutes.
DeAndre Hunter led Virginia with 14 points in 24 minutes off the bench, shooting 5-of-8 from the floor and 2-of-4 from three-point range.
Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome had 13 points each for the Cavs, who got 12 points from Devon Hall.
UVA shot 49.2 percent from the floor and hit on 12-of-25 (48 percent) from three-point range.
Tech, shooting 42.7 percent from three-point range on the season, sixth-best in the nation, was just 2-of-12 from long-range.
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Chris Graham
