Virginia Defeats North Carolina Central 81-62

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — There was a lot for the Virginia Cavaliers to like in their second game of the season. There was also a lot for them to work on.

“We definitely have some things to clean up,” guard Dallin Hall said Friday night after UVA’s 81-62 victory over North Carolina Central at John Paul Jones Arena.

“I thought obviously it was a good game overall,” head coach Ryan Odom said. “The second half, I thought our guys did a nice job in the first 10 minutes. And then North Carolina Central did a really good job down the stretch in the last 10 minutes of putting pressure on us, and we didn’t handle it extremely well. And something certainly that we can learn from, but [there were] some really, really good highlights out there.”

Midway through the second half, Virginia (2-0) led by 31 points and seemed headed for a stress-free win. But the Eagles (0-2) kept battling and forced the Wahoos into multiple errors late in the game.

Virginia never trailed Friday night and never was in danger of losing. Still, Odom expects more from his team.

The Cavaliers shot 45.9% percent overall and 38.9% from 3-range, and they were credited with assists on 22 of their 28 field goals. But UVA looked out of sync at times against NCCU’s zone defense.

“I felt like too many times we were playing outside of [the 3-point arc] and above the timeline,” Odom said. “And they pushed us out, and we didn’t play below them enough.”

When the Hoos were humming on offense, Odom said, they “were unselfish and found one another. When our defense was tight, we were able to rebound and run and get some stuff in transition. And we were for the first 10 minutes of the second half. And then the last 10, we took the foot off the gas a little bit on that side and made some uncharacteristic mistakes. And so we’ve got to clean those up in the next couple of practices.”

Four players scored in double figures for Virginia: forward Thijs Ridder (20 points), guard Malik Thomas (12), swingman Sam Lewis (10) and center Ugonna Onyenso.  De Ridder, Lewis and reserve swingman Jacari White (nine points) hit three treys apiece.

The Cavaliers’ starting center, 7-foot Johann Grünloh, scored only four points but grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked seven shots. Onyenso also stands 7-foot, and he blocked two shots.

At one point, NCCU head coach LeVelle Moton said with a smile, he wondered how many 7-footers Virginia had. “It was just crazy,” he said.

As a shot-blocker, Grünloh said, he focuses on getting his timing and positioning right. “You can’t go forward into the [shooter’s] arms and try to swat it away. Sometimes you’ve got to go straight up, and they have to shoot over you. If it’s a block, it’s cool, but if not, they’ve still got a hard shot.”

In Virginia’s season-opening win over Rider, Grünloh and Onyenso didn’t play at same time, but Odom used them together occasionally against NCCU, with positive results.

“When they’re both out there, they’re a nightmare to deal with,” said Hall, who finished with a game-high seven assists.

“I thought they did pretty well in both halves,” Odom said. “Certainly in the first half, you could see they’re two tall guys out there and you have to monitor when they’re in there. And you try to do it around a break, if you can, so they get a little bit of a rest and they’re not having to go two stretches, or at least one of them isn’t. But they’ll get more comfortable as the year goes on. And so we’ll see how that progresses, but it’s certainly something that we wanted to investigate.”

North Carolina Central was coming off a one-sided loss at NC State. Guard Gage Lattimore, who led NCCU with 20 points in Raleigh, N.C., scored a game-high 25 at JPJ, and power forward Khouri Carvey recorded a double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds).

“They played hard the whole game,” Hall said of the Eagles.

UVA had a significant size advantage and outrebounded NCCU 48-34. The Cavaliers pressed full court from start to finish, with the intent of forcing the Eagles to use up the shot clock and get out of rhythm offensively.

“Eventually they just wear you down,” Moton said.

Virginia’s point guards are Hall and freshman Chance Mallory, and Odom played them together at times Friday night. Mallory finished with nine points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.

“With me and Chance, it’s super fun,” said Hall, a graduate transfer from BYU. “I love the opportunity to get off the ball a little bit. He’s a really good passer. So it’s fun to play with another really good passer and find those catch-and-shoot opportunities and have another guy to take some pressure off you handling the ball.”

UP NEXT: The Cavaliers are halfway through a four-game homestand that continues Tuesday. At 9 p.m., in a non-conference game to air on ACC Network, UVA (2-0) takes on Hampton (1-1) at JPJ.

Virginia leads the series 9-0. In the teams’ most recent meeting, the Hoos defeated the Pirates 82-48 on Dec. 22, 2017. Three Cavaliers scored in double figures that night at JPJ: Kyle Guy (15 points), De’Andre Hunter (14) and Ty Jerome (10).

UVA wraps up the homestand Nov. 15 against Marshall.

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