Virginia gets out to big early lead, coasts from there to 69-52 win at Louisville

It was 11-0 five minutes in; this time, though, Virginia, on the road, was the one that got out to the big lead, instead of falling behind early, as had been the recurring issue earlier in the season.

Louisville never got closer than seven the rest of the way. UVA led by 28 at the half, and it only got closer than 20 when it got to garbage time in what turned into a 69-52 win on Saturday.

The ‘Hoos (15-5, 6-3 ACC) have now won four straight, and their last two on the road, each of the past two Saturdays, after an 0-4 start in true road games, all four of those losses by 16+ points.

Louisville (6-14, 1-8 ACC) had been playing better of late, upsetting Miami down in South Florida three weeks ago, and playing NC State, UNC and Duke tough before things unraveled down the stretch in each of those losses.

This one was never a game. Virginia made its first five shots and held Louisville scoreless for the first 5:45, and the Cardinals only had four made field goals in the first half.

UVA, for its part, shot 57.1 percent in the opening 20 minutes, and connected on 4-of-9 from three, to go into the locker room up 41-13.

An 11-0 UL run got the margin to 19 with 8:21 to go, but Tony Bennett had already begun subbing liberally by that point.

A Ryan Dunn dunk, his sixth of the game, at the 3:10 mark pushed the lead back to 26, at 67-41, at the 3:10 mark.

Dunn finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks – and was 8-of-10 from the floor.

Six dunks will help that.

He was the only guy in double figures in scoring for Virginia.

Three guys finished with nine points – Reece Beekman, who had nine points, nine assists and five steals; Isaac McKneely, who had nine points, making three of his four attempts from three; and Jacob Groves, who was also 3-of-4 from three.

The only issue for Virginia was foul trouble, which seemed to be the result of Jamie Luckie being on the crew, because otherwise, it doesn’t make sense that the Cavaliers finished with 22 personal fouls; coming into the game, UVA averaged 13.1 personal fouls per game, the sixth-fewest in the nation.

Virginia’s three bigs – Groves (4), Jordan Minor (4) and Blake Buchanan (5) – each got into early foul trouble, and obviously, given the totals, didn’t get out of same.

Louisville finished 19-of-24 at the free-throw line.