Live Coverage: #15 UVA hosts Saint Francis

AFP editor Chris Graham reports from the John Paul Arena as #15 Virginia faces off with Saint Francis.

Quick skinny on Saint Francis:

Saint Francis beat Pitt 80-70 last week, then lost to UMBC, 80-65.

Pretty good last season: 22-10, 13-5 in the Northeast Conference.,

They’ll go eight deep, small – three rotation guys over 6’6”, so you can expect them to try to spread the floor and push tempo (they’re averaging 72.8 possessions per game; UVA averages 64.2, dead last in D-1).

And they’ll shoot the three: 36.8 percent on the season, averaging seven makes per game.

Key guys:

• Mark Flagg, a 6’9”, 215-pound senior, is averaging 14.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, more than double his productivity from a year ago.
• Ramiir Dixon-Conover, a 6’3”, 185-pound senior, averages 12.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists, and shoots 40 percent from three.
• Maxwell Land, a 6’4”, 185-pound freshman, is averaging 11.0 points, and he can shoot the three (4-of-6 through two games).
• Myles Thompson, a 6’6”, 230-pound junior, is averaging 9.5 points and 6.0 rebounds.

Quick skinny on Virginia:

• Sam Hauser leads the team in scoring (14.5) and rebounding (7.0) and is shooting 60 percent from the field (12 of 20), 50 percent from 3-point range (3 of 6) and 100 percent from the charity strip (2 of 2).
• Kihei Clark has chipped in 8.0 points per game and leads the team with five assists.
• Sam Huff is averaging 9.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and a team-leading 2.5 blocks per game.
• Trey Murphy III and Reece Beekman have sparked the Cavaliers off the bench. Murphy III went for game-high 21 points against Towson, while Beekman had a team-high 11 points in the loss vs. San Francisco.
• Casey Morsell, Tomas Woldetensae and Kody Stattmann have shared minutes on the perimeter, while Kadin Shedrick has averaged nine minutes off the bench in the frontcourt.