Cavaliers get back on track, blast Morgan State, 79-44, in non-conference finale

By Scott Ratcliffe

Virginia took care of business in its final non-conference tuneup of the season Wednesday, cruising to a 79-44 win over visiting Morgan State in front of a packed house of 14,637 at John Paul Jones Arena.

The Cavaliers (10-2) got contributions from up and down the roster, taking out their collective frustrations from the previous game — a 23-point drubbing on the road at Memphis last Tuesday — and unleashing an offensive barrage on the shorthanded Bears (4-11).

“A lot of guys got to play, so that was good to get guys on the floor, get some minutes and put them in spots,” said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett. “And yeah, we had with exam break, long break and then obviously winter break, so we’ll get to work — we’ve got to practice tomorrow at 2 to prepare for Notre Dame, and again, some guys did some good things out there. You’ve got to keep coming together and improving of course, but now it’s kind of like your second season… we’ll have to keep tightening up.”

UVA was able to establish an early lead that it would never relinquish, cashing in on a pair of triples across the opening stretch of action — one from Jacob Groves, the other from Andrew Rohde — to set the tone for what turned out to be a long night for the visitors.

After the Bears trimmed it to 17-10 midway through the opening half, Virginia responded with a 26-6 run to close the half. Reece Beekman jumpstarted the Cavalanche with a stepback 3-pointer before Ryan Dunn got into the act, skying for an offensive rebound that led to an old-fashioned, 3-point play which extended the lead to 13.

Redshirt-freshman forward Leon Bond III made the most of his minutes, scoring 6 of his 10 points across the final five minutes of the half, while Merrimack grad-transfer Jordan Minor got himself in the box score with a nice backdown and spin move in the lane during the spurt, which sent the Wahoos into the locker room with a 43-16 advantage.

Morgan State opened the second half with an 8-0 run of its own to steal some momentum and get back within 20 points, but UVA answered right back with an 8-2 spree, as was the theme for the rest of the night. Any time the Bears made some noise and drew closer, the Hoos had a counterattack up their sleeves.

Beekman led the way with 17 points, a game-high 7 assists (the Bears had 5 as a team), 2 blocks and a steal while only giving the ball away once all night. Rohde (4 for 8 FG; 2 for 5 from 3-point land), Groves (3 for 6; 3 for 4) and Bond (4 of 9 from the floor) each finished in double figures as well with 10 points apiece, while Dunn added 8 points, a game-high 10 boards, 2 steals and a block.

“He’s continuing to adjust,” Bennett said of Rohde, who had scored just 3 total points over his last three outings (1-14, 1-10 from deep). “This is just his second year, and first year of playing consistently — or will start to be consistently — against the power five teams, so there’s an adjustment period. I think you see the youth and inexperience, at times, show itself at inopportune times, but we need Andrew’s ability.”

Added Rohde of his bounceback effort after the Memphis loss: “Obviously, that was a gut punch and nobody wants to lose like that, but I think we did a good job of kind of just not forgetting about it, but watching the tape, seeing what we can do to do better, and we really kind of came to practice with a different edge and  just trying to be the best that we can be.”

Sophomore guard Isaac McKneely, who in his last two contests struggled to follow up on his back-to-back breakout performances earlier in the month against Syracuse and NC Central (career-high 22 points in each game), got back into a rhythm in the second half of Wednesday’s affair.

After going scoreless in the first half, the Poca, W.Va., native dropped in two long balls after misfiring on all five against Memphis and the first two he attempted on Wednesday. He finished with 6 points, 4 assists and a pair of steals.

Minor matched a season-high with 6 points on 3-of-5 shooting and 2 rebounds in 12 minutes off the bench, arguably his best performance in a Cavalier uniform to date.

Eleven of the 12 Hoos that took the floor registered at least 2 points, including walk-ons Tristan How and Bryce Walker, who put the icing on the cake with his first career 3-pointer with 15 seconds remaining. The UVA bench outscored the Bears’ by a 28-5 margin.

Virginia shot 47 percent on the evening (32 for 68), with 22 assists on the 32 made field goals. The Hoos connected on 10 of their 23 attempts from downtown (44 percent) and made just 5 of 11 (46 percent) from the charity stripe.

UVA also prevailed in the rebounding department, 39-33, securing 17 offensive boards which led to 22 second-chance points, and dominated the paint, 38-12. The Hoos scored 22 points off of 19 MSU turnovers.

Morgan State, which shot at a 34-percent clip from the field (15 for 44) and 42 percent from long range (5 of 12), was led by Rob Lawson’s 14 points and 4 assists, with Kamron Hobbs chipping in 13.

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• Virginia (10-2, 1-0 ACC) is 8-0 at John Paul Jones Arena
• UVA used a 17-1 run to gain a 41-13 lead
• UVA shot 52.9 percent en route to a 43-16 halftime lead
• UVA is 113-2, including a 4-0 mark in 2023-24, when limiting foes to fewer then 50 points during the Tony Bennett era
• Virginia is 163-11 all-time when scoring 70 or more points under Bennett
• UVA is 6-0 when scoring 70 or more points in 2023-24
• UVA forced one shot clock violation (8 total)
• UVA had 20 stocks (13 steals and seven blocked shots)
• UVA out-rebounded Morgan State 39-33 and owned a 28-5 advantage in bench points

Series Notes

• UVA 5-0 all-time against Morgan State
• UVA has limited Morgan State to 48 or fewer points in the last three meetings
• UVA is 23-0 all-time vs. current Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference foes (2-0 in 2023-24)
• UVA is 16-0 vs. MEAC opponents under Tony Bennett

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Reece Beekman (17), Jake Groves (10), Andrew Rohde (10), Leon Bond III (10)
• Jordan Minor tied a season high with six points
• Beekman reached double figures for the 38th time
• Groves reached double figures for the 31st time (5th at UVA)
• Rohde reached double figures for the 31st time (3rd at UVA)
• Bond reached double figures for the fourth time
• Beekman made his 99th career start
• Beekman (1 steal) is tied for third on UVA’s all-time steals list with 189
• Rohde recorded his 600th career point (603 total)
• Rohde added a season-high three steals
• Ryan Dunn had a game-high 10 rebounds
• Dante Harris missed his sixth-straight game with an ankle injury

UP NEXT

Virginia resumes ACC play on Saturday afternoon at Notre Dame (Noon, ACC Network).