It wasn’t pretty. Fifth-ranked Virginia struggled from three, hitting five on the night, three in garbage time, but Tony Bennett had a good game plan: bust it inside on Maryland-Eastern Shore’s tiny rotation, early and often.
Jayden Gardner was 12-of-15 from the floor on his way to a season-high 26 points, and the bigger, more physical ‘Hoos went on to a 72-45 win on Friday.
Virginia (5-0) got out to a 20-4 lead seven and a half minutes in, endured a brief Hawks run, led by 18 at the half, and coasted from there.
But a UVA team that had been shooting 46.9 percent from three was just 5-of-15 in this one, and the last three – back-to-back triples from freshman Isaac McKneely, a corner three from former walk-on Chase Coleman – came after the outcome had been decided.
The story Friday was Gardner and Kadin Shedrick, who had 13 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor and 5-of-5 shooting at the line, dominating the small Hawks in the post.
For the stat geeks out there, Maryland-Eastern Shore ranks 359th among the 363 teams in average height, and the tallest Hawk to get minutes Friday night was 6’8” freshman Victory Naboya, whose three minutes came in garbage time.
The game plan was to feed the post as much as possible to the 6’6” Gardner and 6’11” Shedrick, to predictable effect – Virginia made 17 of its 24 shots at the rim and outscored Maryland-Eastern Shore 40-22 in the paint.
The Hawks’ four-guard lineup gave Virginia fits, at times, with Zion Styles (11 points, 5-of-12 shooting) and Ahamadou Fofana (eight points, 4-of-9 shooting) scoring in the mid-range in a couple of stretches.
Meaning Bennett has some things to use to keep his team’s focus into next week, with UVA getting ready for its first true road game of the season, Tuesday night at Michigan (5-1) in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
The ‘Hoos then open their ACC schedule at home next Saturday with struggling Florida State, which lost 70-60 to Stanford tonight to fall to 1-6 on the season.
One other ACC note: top-ranked North Carolina was upset Friday night by unranked Iowa State, 70-65, at the Phil Knight Invitational.
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Chris Graham
