Cavaliers thump Tarleton State, 80-50, in season opener

By Scott Ratcliffe

The new-look Virginia men’s basketball team started the 2023-24 season off on a positive note, coming away with an 80-50 win in the opener at John Paul Jones Arena Monday night against Tarleton State.

Senior point guard Reece Beekman led the effort with game highs of 16 points and 7 assists to go with his 4 rebounds, 3 steals and a block, while second-year guard Isaac McKneely matched his career high with 15 points, which included a game-high 4 triples.

Cavalier fans got their first true look at six of the team’s newcomers, with redshirt freshman forward Leon Bond III delivering a memorable debut. Bond finished with 12 points and a game-high 9 rebounds, knocking down 4 of his 5 field-goal attempts (and 4 of his 6 free-throw tries), nabbing a pair of steals as well across 17 minutes off the bench.

Oklahoma graduate transfer Jacob Groves got the start down low, and sank 3 long balls to finish with 9 points in his first game as a Wahoo. Monday’s game was also the first in a Cavalier uniform for Andrew Rohde, Dante Harris, Blake Buchanan and Jordan Minor, each of whom saw double-digit minutes and made contributions on both ends of the floor.

UVA (1-0) came out firing, burying 4 3-pointers across the opening 3 1/2 minutes — 2 of them by McKneely, one by sophomore forward Ryan Dunn and one by Rohde — to build a quick 14-6 edge.

“I thought we played real hard. We talked about what genuine passion would look like, and I thought our guys battled…,” said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett, who won his 13th season opener to start Year 15 in Charlottesville. “I liked the heart and the effort, for sure, out of the blocks.”

The Hoos maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the first half, as Harris scored his first bucket as a Cavalier on a sweet scoop finish to make it 27-11 with 6:34 until halftime.

McKneely nailed his third triple of the half with just over four minutes left, and then Beekman followed with an old-fashioned three-point play to stretch the lead to 18, and Virginia held a comfortable 43-19 advantage at the break, capped off by a Beekman buzzer-beating drive to the hole.

Beekman spotted McKneely for another one from downtown to start the second half before Groves connected on his first long ball to make it a 49-21 affair with 17:42 remaining.

Groves wasn’t done, knocking down back-to-back 3s midway through the second half to make it a 22-point contest, showing off his ability to stretch the floor and shoot from the outside.

A few minutes later, Bond wowed the JPJ crowd with a powerful, one-hand follow jam on a Rohde 3-point miss from the corner, the lead grew to 70-41, and the UVA fans went home happy after a solid, all-around performance.

“I’m just proud of everybody’s effort,” McKneely said afterwards. “Everybody made contributions. Everybody played well, so I was happy with the win.”

The Hoos shot 49 percent (23 for 47) from the field and 46 percent (10 for 22) from downtown, but just 62 percent (24 of 39) from the foul line.

“We didn’t foul ‘em enough,” said Texans coach Billy Gillispie of the Cavaliers’ free-throw woes. “They missed 15 foul shots; we just didn’t foul ‘em enough tonight. We should’ve put them on the line 20 more times and maybe they’d miss five or six more, that would’ve helped us out a little bit.”

Virginia assisted on 15 of those 23 field goals and outrebounded the Texans, 41-30. The Cavalier defense forced 16 TSU turnovers and converted them into 14 points on the other end, while only committing 8 giveaways on the evening.

UVA revealed that freshmen Elijah Gertrude, Christian Bliss and Anthony Robinson will all be redshirting this season.

Tarleton State (0-1) shot just 33 percent on the night (16 for 48), including 23 percent (3 for 13) from long range. Devon Barnes (11 points) and Izzy Miles (10 points) were the only two Texans in double figures.

UVA will hit the road Friday for the first time this season in a neutral-site meeting against Florida, part of the Hall of Fame Series at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte (7 p.m., ACC Network).

“We’ve got some good ones coming up, so we’ll just keep chipping away,” said Bennett. “It’s a group with so many new guys that you don’t quite know what to expect. I guess there’s that, but hopefully we’ll settle in and keep improving as the season progresses.”

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• UVA began its 119th season of men’s basketball with the nonconference win
• UVA is 24-2 in its last 26 season-opening games
• UVA is 13-2 in season openers under head coach Tony Bennett
• The Cavaliers are 96-23 all-time in season-opening games
• UVA is 92-10 in nonconference action at JPJ under Bennett
• UVA is 158-11 all-time when scoring 70 or more points under Bennett
• Virginia is 47-1 all-time under Bennett when scoring 80 or more points
• UVA forced one shot clock violation
• Tarleton had a scoring drought of 6:25 of the first half
• UVA shot 58.3 percent in the first half, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range
• The Cavaliers led 43-19 at the half
• UVA finished 10 of 22 from 3-point range (45.5 percent)
• UVA out-rebounded Tarleton State 40-27

Series Notes

• This was the first meeting between the teams

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Reece Beekman (16), Isaac McKneely (15), Leon Bond III (12)
• Beekman reached double figures for the 31st time
• Beekman matched a career high with six made free throws (6 of 7)
• Beekman added seven assists and three steals
• Beekman was named to the Naismith Trophy Preseason 50 Watch List earlier today
• Bond had 12 points and nine rebounds in his UVA debut
• McKneely matched career highs with 15 points and four 3-pointers
• McKneely reached double figures for the ninth time
• Dante Harris, Andrew Rohde, Blake Buchanan, Jake Groves and Jordan Minor also made their UVA debuts