Hokies take rematch, blasting Cavaliers, 75-41

By Scott Ratcliffe

Round Two of the Commonwealth Clash was expected to be a tight, hard-fought contest between in-state rivals Virginia and Virginia Tech at Cassell Coliseum on ESPN’s Big Monday.

For about the first 10 minutes, that proved to be the case until the Cavaliers went ice cold and the Hokies capitalized, scoring 20 unanswered points across a stretch of nearly nine minutes en route to a 75-41 walloping of the Wahoos.

For UVA, the 36-16 halftime deficit was simply too large to overcome, and Tech just kept pouring it on in front of its raucous home crowd in the second half.

Virginia (20-7, 11-5 ACC) still remains in contention for one of the top four seeds in the ACC tournament next month, while the Hokies (15-11, 7-8) are trying to fight their way out of having to win five games in five days in D.C.

Mike Young’s squad, which is an impressive 12-2 at home this season, dropped the first meeting in Charlottesville last month, 65-57, but looked like a different team on its home court in Blacksburg.

It wasn’t even the Hokies’ usual suspects — the deadly backcourt duo of Sean Pedulla and Hunter Cattoor, the team’s top two scorers — that did most of the damage, but rather the supporting cast.

Tech was led by big man Lynn Kidd, who registered game-highs of 14 points and 7 rebounds in just 18 minutes, while transfer forwards Robbie Beran (Northwestern) and Tyler Nickel (North Carolina) added 13 points apiece. Mylyjael Poteat chipped in 11 points in 18 minutes off the bench. Neither Kidd (5 for 5 FG) nor Beran (4 for 4) missed a shot all evening.

Pedulla and Cattoor were limited to a combined 14 points on 4-for-14 shooting (2 for 8 from long range), but the Hokies still managed to earn their largest margin of victory in the series since Feb. 10, 2007.

UVA grabbed an 8-7 advantage, which turned out to be its last lead of the ballgame, on a Jake Groves layup with 12:38 left in the opening half. Moments later, Taine Murray’s bucket cut the Tech lead to one, 13-12, before Nickel sank one of his two 3-pointers of the night.

Jordan Minor trimmed it back to two, 16-14, with 9:43 until halftime, and the Hoos wouldn’t score again until Leon Bond III jammed one home with 46 seconds left in the half. Kidd scored 8 points during the decisive 20-0 run.

The Hokies started the second half on a 7-0 run in just 42 seconds to extend the lead to 27, 43-16, and it didn’t really get any better from there for Cavalier fans.

UVA shot just 33 percent for the game (17 for 52), including 17 percent from downtown (2 of 12) and 71 percent (5 for 7) from the free-throw line. Virginia was outrebounded, 32-28, and committed 12 turnovers, which led to 24 points on the opposite end, while only forcing 7 Hokie giveaways (4 points off turnovers).

Isaac McKneely led the team with 11 points, while Reece Beekman had 7 points and a season-low 2 assists on a rough, 3-for-10 night from the field.

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• UVA’s (20-7, 11-5 ACC) four-game road win streak ended
• The 34-point loss was UVA’s largest vs. Virginia Tech since a 35-point loss on Feb. 18, 1961
• Virginia Tech led 36-16 at the half
• The 20-point halftime deficit was the largest for UVA since trailing North Carolina 33-13 in the 2022 ACC Tournament quarterfinals
• Virginia Tech used a 20-0 run to gain a 36-14 lead
• UVA had a scoring drought of 8:57 during the 20-0 run
• Virginia Tech earned a split in the season series and half point in the Smithfield Commonwealth Clash
• Virginia leads the 2024 Clash vs. Virginia Tech 5.5-2.0
• Six of UVA’s seven losses have been away from home and by 16 or more points
• UVA forced two shot-clock violations (23 in 2023-24)

Series Notes

• Virginia is 98-60 all-time vs. Virginia Tech, including a 23-34 mark in Blacksburg, in the series that dates to 1914-15
• UVA is winless it its last four visits to Blacksburg
• Head coach Tony Bennett is 19-10 all-time vs. Virginia Tech

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Isaac McKneely (11)
• McKneely reached double figures for the 22nd time
• Dante Harris’ six points off the bench were his most since scoring six vs. Texas Southern on Nov. 16, 2023
• Harris tied a season high with two steals
• Ryan Dunn had one blocked shot to move into a tie for eighth on UVA’s single-season list with 63 blocks

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers return to JPJ for a huge matchup against first-place, top-10 North Carolina on Saturday at 4 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN.