Taine Murray, glued to the bench for long stretches this season, gave Virginia a nice lift, scoring 12 points in a career-high 28 minutes, keying the ‘Hoos to a 72-57 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday.
Murray’s minutes came at the expense of the struggling sophomore guard Andrew Rohde, who had averaged 2.9 points per game on 22.8 percent shooting over his last 14 games, dating back to the Jan. 17 win over Virginia Tech.
Rohde didn’t get off the bench tonight, his first DNP this season.
Cue up the questions from the fanbase about why this move wasn’t made sooner, but anyway.
Virginia (22-9, 13-7 ACC) took control in the final 10 minutes of the first half, because of good offense – making 10 of its last 14 shots from the field to go into the break up 38-24.
Reece Beekman had a big first half – 13 points and five assists, on his way to a night in which he had 21 points (8-of-10 FG, 3-of-4 3FG) and eight assists.
Isaac McKneely got out to a slow start, missing his first four shots, before connecting on six of his last eight, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, 4-of-8 from three.
Murray’s 12-point night came on 5-of-10 shooting, 2-of-5 from three, the second being the one that clipped the brief Georgia Tech run that had cut the UVA lead to nine.
That Murray three, with 16:43 left, pushed the lead back to 12, at 44-32, and the margin never got closer the rest of the night.
Jake Groves played a good bit as a small-ball five, getting 33 minutes, scoring nine points on 3-of-7 shooting, all from three, and grabbing six rebounds.
The win wraps up the three seed in next week’s ACC Tournament, with Virginia slated to play in the 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday game against the winner of the #6 Clemson-#11 Boston College/#14 Miami game.
And if you believe the many amateur bracketologists, the win should also put Virginia on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, though it wouldn’t hurt the ‘Hoos to get at least one win next week in Washington.
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Chris Graham
