No. 16 Virginia Tops William & Mary 76-40
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 16 Virginia (4-1) used a balanced attack in its 76-40 win over William & Mary (2-3) on Tuesday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.
Two players finished in double figures and 12 players scored in the game for the Cavaliers. Trey Murphy III (Durham, N.C.) led the team with 15 points and added three assists. Kadin Shedrick (Raleigh, N.C.) had 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Virginia shot 51 percent from the field and 46 percent beyond the arc. UVA held the Tribe to 28 percent shooting and forced three shot-clock violations in the game. Virginia led in rebounds (35-29), points in the paint (34-18) and bench points (32-5).
HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia had four different players score in its first four possessions of the game. Kihei Clark (Woodland Hills, Calif.) opened the game with a running floater in the lane. Jay Huff (Durham, N.C.) had a put-back dunk off a missed shot, Tomas Woldetensae (Bologna, Italy) hit a three and Clark found Murphy III for a dunk. UVA had an 11-2 lead over William & Mary at the 16:31 mark in the first half. The Cavaliers had an 11-0 run late in the first half that included seven-straight by Murphy. Sam Hauser (Stevens Point, Wis.) hit a three just before the half as UVA had its largest lead, 36-14, at the break.
Virginia continued to shoot the ball well in the second half. Shedrick scored eight of his 10 points in the second half. Justin McKoy (Cary, N.C.), Jabri Abdur-Rahim (South Orange, N.J.) and Austin Katstra (Charlottesville, Va.) all scored in the second half, while Carson McCorkle added an assist and a steal.
THE GAME BALL GOES TO
Trey Murphy III was 6-for-9 from the field and 3-for-6 beyond the arc to lead UVA with 15 points. He added four rebounds and three assists.
FROM TONY BENNETT
“I think our guys came out focused and ready and looked fairly sharp. They’re probably going to say ‘See coach, practice is overrated, we can rest for 10 days and go in those stretches,’ but no, they came out ready, knocked some shots and I thought we played fairly alert defensively. The issue we had a couple times was not possessing defensive rebounds. I think that was big and we gave up second chance points, statistically I don’t know how many, but we got good shots and did what we were supposed to do. I talked to them about our two pillars I said, ‘Will you be humble and will you be passionate today. Will you play with humility and knowing who you are and approach this the right way and then with great passion, on every possession, the best you can muster up.’ So that was kind of the mindset.”
UP NEXT
Virginia will travel to Fort Worth, Texas to play No. 1 Gonzaga on Saturday, Dec. 26 at 4 p.m. at Dickies Arena. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports.