It wasn’t pretty, or easy, but ninth-ranked Virginia eventually took care of business Wednesday night, defeating Boston College, 61-47.
The Cavaliers (18-4, 7-3) led throughout, but BC was able to hang around for a while by uglying the game up a bit, focusing at the outset on aggressively taking away Virginia’s post game.
The strategy worked for a while. The Eagles were down just five, 25-20, with 3:30 left in the first half, and were as close as seven in the early stages of the second half before Virginia started to pulled away with a 15-4 run over a 6:37 stretch of the second half.
UVA led by as many as 25 before emptying the bench in the final minutes.
Malcolm Brogdon scored a game-high 27 for Virginia, which led 29-20 at the break, getting 17 from Brogdon, going 11-of-14 at the line, 4-of-8 from three-point range, and not much else.
The Cavs didn’t score their first points in the paint in the game until the 1:19 mark of the first half on a tip-dunk by Anthony Gill, and that was it as far as the inside game, as the Eagles packed it in on Gill, in particular.
Gill finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but he did his damage at the free-throw line, going 8-of-10 at the stripe, and was just 1-for-4 from the floor.
Virginia was 7-of-21 (33.3 percent) from the field in the first half, 3-of-13 on two-point shots.
For the game, the ‘Hoos shot 42.5 percent from the floor (17-of-41), 50 percent from behind the arc (9-of-18) and went 18-of-22 (81.8 percent) at the foul line.
Boston College got 14 points from Sammy Barnes-Thompkins, 12 in the first half, and shot 26.5 percent from the floor (13-of-49), including 8-of-26 (30.5 percent) from three-point range.
Virginia Team Notes
- Virginia upped its ACC winning streak to five games and is limiting its opponents to 58.4 points per game during that stretch
- UVA matched a season low in points allowed (previous was 47 Saturday at Louisville)
- BC shot 26.5 percent, lowest by a UVA opponent since the Cavaliers held Wake Forest to 21.8 percent shooting on Feb. 25, 2015
- Virginia is 12-7 all-time against Boston College, including a 7-2 mark in Charlottesville; UVA head coach Tony Bennett is 6-4 against BC
- Virginia is 31-1 in home ACC games the last four seasons
- Virginia has won 16 straight home games dating back to the 2014-15 season
- UVA is 134-36 in 10 seasons at JPJ, including 96-20 under Tony Bennett
- Virginia is 14-1 when leading at the half
- UVA held an 11-0 edge in points off turnovers in the first half
- Virginia did not trail against BC and has not trailed in a game since just prior to Darius Thompson’s buzzer-beating game winner at Wake Forest
- UVA has held back-to-back opponents under 50 points and is now 53-2 under Tony Bennett when limiting to opponents to fewer than 50 points
- UVA is 13-1 when out-rebounding its opponent
- UVA shot 50 percent (9-for-18) from 3-point range, marking the seventh time it has 50 percent or better from behind the arc
Virginia Player Notes
- Malcolm Brogdon became the 18th player in program history to eclipse the 1,500-point barrier
- Brogdon scored 27 points, his 11th game of 20-plus points this season and one off his career high
- Anthony Gill scored 10 points and reached double figures in scoring for the 22nd straight game this year and 24th overall
- Gill added 11 rebounds to record his second double-double of the season (WVU) and his fifth career
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Chris Graham
