Boston College was able to hang around a little longer than the home crowd might have wanted, but a 24-6 Virginia second-half run closed out a 76-57 win on Saturday in Charlottesville.
The win is the sixth in a row for Virginia since the Cavaliers lost 68-65 loss at Pitt on Jan. 3.
And it wasn’t the new small lineup that did it today. Ben Vander Plas, whose insertion into the starting lineup had triggered the recent hot streak, was Vander Minus today, contributing just two points and three rebounds in 18 minutes.
Jayden Gardner, whose starting role may be up for grabs, played like it in this one, pouring in 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting and pulling down six rebounds in 24 minutes.
The guy pushing him at the four spot, freshman Ryan Dunn, had a nice afternoon as well – with six points, on two spectacular dunks and a mid-range jumper, four rebounds, a steal that led to a fast-break bucket, and a chase-down block in 16 minutes off the bench.
How it played out
BC (10-12, 4-7 ACC) came out guns-a-blazin’, or rather, 7’0” senior Quentin Post did.
Post, who came in averaging 15.3 points per game on 57.5 percent shooting from the floor and 44.4 percent shooting from three, had 14 points by the 14:14 mark of the first half, taking advantage of an odd blip in the game that had the first media timeout come all the way at the 11:38 mark.
UVA coach Tony Bennett had subbed out BVP for Francisco Caffaro after Vander Plas picked up an early foul, and Post ate Caffaro for lunch and an early dinner, scoring 10 points in a 1:52 stretch on a short jumper, a layup and a pair of threes.
Virginia (16-3, 8-2 ACC) eventually settled things down on defense, holding the Eagles to 3-of-16 shooting in the final 11:35 of the first half to go into the break up 35-27.
Gardner came out of the locker room on fire, scoring eight points in the opening 4:37 of the second half to push the margin to 50-36, but Boston College would hang around.
A pair of free throws from Devin McGlockton pulled BC to 52-43 with 12:00 to go, and an Armaan Franklin turnover in the backcourt gave the Eagles the ball back with the chance to pull even closer.
A Franklin dunk and then a Franklin three ignited what turned into a 24-6 run for UVA over the next 7:51 that broke the game open.
Virginia made 11 of 13 shots in the stretch, and on the defensive end, held BC to 1-of-11 shooting.
Box score
Inside the box score
Gardner and Franklin each had 18 points to lead the way for Virginia.
For Gardner, it was his best output since way back on Nov. 25, when he had a season-high 26 in the win over Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Franklin is averaging 16.8 points per game over his last nine games, dating back to his goose egg in the 66-64 loss at Miami on Dec. 22.
Isaac McKneely had 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including 2-of-4 from three.
Over his last six games, iMac is averaging 9.3 points per game off the bench, and shooting an eye-popping 56.0 percent from three (14-of-25).
McKneely has gone for double figures in scoring in four of the last six.
Reece Beekman had 11 points and eight assists.
In the six-game winning streak, Beeks is averaging 10.7 points and 6.2 assists per game.
Post, who had 14 points in the first 5:46 of this one, finished with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the floor, 2-of-6 from three, and 6-of-6 at the line, in 32 minutes.
Highlights
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Chris Graham
