No. 14 UVA Hosts East Carolina on Tuesday

Dec. 5, 2016

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 14 Virginia (7-1) hosts East Carolina (7-2) in in men’s basketball non-conference action on Tuesday (Dec. 6). Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for 7 p.m.

For Openers
– Virginia meets East Carolina for the first time since the 1968-69 season.
– UVA’s JPJ-record home-winning streak of 24 games ended with its 66-57 loss to then-No. 25 West Virginia on Dec. 6.
– The Cavaliers rank first in the nation in scoring defense at 46.9 points per game and have held six of their eight opponents to 52 or fewer points.
– UVA head coach Tony Bennett and ECU head coach Jeff Lebo are two of 28 current DI coaches that played in the NBA.

Broadcast Information
– The Virginia-East Carolina game will be televised on the Regional Sports Network, streamed online on ACC Network Extra and broadcast on the Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Athletics mobile app on iTunes or Android.
– Live statistics will be located on VirginiaSports.com and the Virginia Sports app.

The Head Coaches
Virginia: Tony Bennett (Green Bay, 1992), 172-73 in eight seasons at UVA and 241-106 in 11 seasons overall.
East Carolina: Jeff Lebo (North Carolina, 1989), 106-102 in six seasons at East Carolina and 317-258 in 17 seasons overall.

UVA Ranked No. 14/12 in Latest Polls
– UVA is ranked No. 14 in the latest Associated Press poll and No. 12 in the USA Today Coaches’ poll. – UVA had been ranked in the top 10 in 11 consecutive AP polls and 12 consecutive coaches’ polls dating back to last season.
– The Cavaliers were ranked in top 10 in the preseason rankings (No. 8/7) for the third straight season, matching a school-best from 1981-83.
– UVA has been ranked in 51 consecutive AP polls since Feb. 3, 2014.
– UVA has finished in the top 10 (No. 3 in 2014 & No. 6 in 2015 and No. 4 in 2016) in the final AP rankings in three consecutive seasons for the first time since 1981-83.

UVA All-Time vs. East Carolina
– Virginia is 1-0 all-time vs. East Carolina in the series that dates back to the 1968-69 season.
– UVA topped ECU 88-79 in Greenville on Dec. 27, 1968.
– John Gidding tallied a game-high 27 points, leading four Cavaliers in double figures in the win.
– Norm Carmichael added 15 points, John English had 14 and Tony Kinn chipped in 12.
– Tom Miller led five Pirates in double figures with 21 points.

Against The American Athletic Conference
– Virginia meets its first American Athletic Conference opponent since posting wins against SMU (76-73) and Memphis (78-60 in the third round of the NCAA Tournament) during the 2013-14 season.
– Virginia has a 30-46 record against current AAC members (14-31 vs. Navy, 3-0 vs. Tulane, 3-2 vs. Temple, 3-3 vs. Houston, 2-6 vs. UCONN, 1-0 vs. ECU, 1-0 vs. Memphis, 1-0 vs. SMU, 1-1 vs. South Florida, 1-3 vs. Cincinnati).

Last Time Out
– Esa Ahmad hit a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 1:28 remaining on Saturday, Dec. 3 and then-No. 25 West Virginia scored 11 of the game’s final 13 points to top then-No. 6 Virginia 66-57.
– West Virginia forced Virginia into a season-high 14 turnovers.
– Jevon Carter led the Mountaineers (6-1) with 11 points and Nathan Adrian had 10.
– Darius Thompson scored 14 points to lead Virginia (7-1), while Marial Shayok added nine points and London Perrantes chipped in six points, four rebounds and seven assists, respectively.
– Isaiah Wilkins had a game-high eight rebounds.
– UVA shot 45.8 percent from the field, 31.6 percent from 3-point range and 53.8 percent from the charity stripe in its first loss.

There’s No Place Like Home
– Virginia is 142-37 (.793) in 11 seasons at John Paul Jones Arena. – West Virginia ended UVA’s JPJ-record, 24-game home winning streak on Dec. 3.
– The Cavaliers finished undefeated at home (15-0) in 2015-16 for the first time since 1981-82 (12-0). – UVA is 104-21 (.832), including a 69-6 (.920) mark the past five seasons, at home under head coach Tony Bennett.
– Virginia is 35-1 in ACC home games over the past four seasons.
– UVA has won 11 or more home games for seven straight seasons.
– The Cavaliers have a 14-game, ACC-home winning streak with Duke dealing UVA its last ACC home loss on Jan. 31, 2015 (69-63).

Hoo Are These Wahoos?
– Virginia is led by senior point guard London Perrantes, who is a Wooden and Naismith Player of the Year and ACC Player of the Year candidate.
– Perrantes is averaging team highs in points (10 ppg) and assists (4.3 apg).
– Isaiah Wilkins (6.8 ppg & 5.1 rpg) leads the team in rebounds (41) and steals (13) and is second in blocked shots (11).
– Darius Thompson is averaging 9.8 points, while Marial Shayok has added 9.3 points per game off the bench.
– Newcomer Kyle Guy is averaging 7.5 points, while Jarred Reuter in second on the team in rebounding at 4.4 per game.
– Mamadi Diakite is averaging 5.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots in 15 minutes per game.

On The Horizon
– Virginia hosts Robert Morris in non-conference action on Saturday, Dec. 17. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for 4:30 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPNU.