No. 3 Virginia Tops Miami 56-46
Postgame Notes | Postgame Quotes | Boxscore
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Three players reached double-figures as No. 3 Virginia (20-1, 8-1 ACC) reached 20 wins in its eighth straight season with a 56-46 win over Miami (9-12, 1-8 ACC) on Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.
De’Andre Hunter (Philadelphia, Pa.) led the Cavaliers with 14 points and had six rebounds with a block and two steals. Mamadi Diakite (Conakry, Guinea, Africa) had 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Kyle Guy (Indianapolis, Ind.) added 10 points.
Jack Salt (Auckland, New Zealand) led UVA with nine rebounds and Braxton Key (Charlotte, N.C.) had eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals.
UVA was strong on the board with 42 rebounds to 24 for the Hurricanes. The Cavaliers shot 42 percent from the field and 35 percent from 3-point range, while Miami was 34 percent from the floor and 19 percent beyond the arc.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia scored first to open the game, the Hunter scored UVA’s next seven points to lead 9-4.
Miami took its first and only lead with a 7-0 run, but the Cavaliers responded with a 9-0 run to lead 18-11. Virginia took a 28-21 lead into the break. Miami hit a three out of the half, but Kihei Clark (Woodland Hills, Calif.) hit a three and a Salt three-point play put UVA ahead 34-26. Miami closed the gap to six with 8:15 to go, but Guy hit a three and Diakite had a dunk and made a free throw as UVA held on for the win.
THE GAME BALL GOES TO
Mamadi Diakite finished with 11 points (4-of-7), six rebounds and three blocks. Diakite scored the first points of the game and had seven of UVA’s final eight points in the win.
NOTES
• Virginia (20-1, 8-1 ACC) extended its school record for consecutive 20-win seasons to eight
• Clark played a season-high 37 minutes and matched a season high with six assists
• Mamadi Diakite (3 blocked shots) has a 14-game blocked shot streak
• Jack Salt matched a season high with nine rebounds
• Braxton Key matched a career high with two blocked shots
QUOTES
On UVA’s offense without point guard Ty Jerome:
“I think that we had a hard time finding the balance of running our stuff hard and trusting the offense to produce a quality shot that we got to being where we have to force the action. I think that there is a balance and we have to still stay assertive. We were unsound the last two games, and of course Ty (Jerome) helps us with that and his absence certainly showed. It was invaluable experience for all of our guys to play in that. We made some defensive plays to block some shots and bother some things. They missed an awful lot of wide-open looks. We were fortunate in that regard, but there were enough good looks defensively and at times we were fumbling around and struggling. There is a quote that says, ‘Excellence isn’t easy, but stay focused’; at times, we wavered in and out of that.”
UP NEXT
Virginia will host No. 2 Duke on Saturday, Feb. 9. The game is set to tip at 6 p.m. and will also be ESPN’s College GameDay site.