The Cavaliers’ fast start helps them fly past the Cardinals 64-52 (1-24-22)

By: Darrell Owens

Headline Photo Credit: Darrell Owens-LMS Network

The month of January has been back in forth for the Virginia Cavaliers. The Cavaliers are 4-3 this month and 11-8 overall, 5-4 ACC on the season. Virginia came into Monday night looking to take down Louisville who are also 11-8, 5-4 ACC. Both teams are jocking for position in the ACC as we get closer and closer to March. This matchup would be heavily in Virginia’s favor.

In the 1st half, the Cavaliers jumped out to a 22-5 lead with a 17-2 run during the process. Louisville would crawl back into the contest before the end of the first half. UVA would hold a 35-23 lead at halftime. The second half was very competitive. The Cardinals keep things even with both teams scoring 29 respectively, but their terrible start would doom them. Virginia would win the contest 64-52 to move to 12-8 overall, 5-3 ACC. Kihei Clark scored 15 points to lead the Cavaliers. Jayden Gardner (14), Kadin Shedrick (11), Armaan Franklin (10) points all chipped in for Virginia. Virginia now holds an 18-5 lead in the overall series with Louisville. Jerrod West scored 14 points to lead the Cardinals.

Coach Tony Bennett had this to say about his teams’ offense exclusion:

“Well, especially early on it always helps when you’re making some shots but I thought we were crisp, found different things, moved well without the ball screen pretty well. We had, we call them pocket passes, Kihei [Clark] got us off to a good start. There was a nice synergy in terms of how they played and were connected in that way so that was good. Then they paired it with really good defense, with good ball pressure, and just responded the right way from. They responded, when you look at Reece [Beekman]’s stat line, just wow. Again, it was good. They slowed us up a little bit when they went with their 1-3-1 or 1-1-3 matchup zone, but we got some good looks from that, it was just a better effort all around tonight.”

Virginia’s next contest will be Saturday, January 29 at 6 pm EST at Notre Dame.