Game Notes: Cavaliers play at JMU Tuesday night

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Posted on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, 4:34 pm

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Photo courtesy UVA Athletics.

Virginia (6-3) travels to JMU (7-2) for a nonconference game on Tuesday, Dec. 7. Tipoff at Atlantic Union Bank Center is set for 6:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.

For Openers

  • Virginia (6-3) concludes its nonconference road slate at JMU.
  • UVA meets its second in-state opponent (Radford) of 2021-22.
  • The Cavaliers rank 10th nationally in scoring defense, yielding 56.2 points per game.
  • UVA ranks 20th nationally in turnovers per game (10.1).
  • UVA has limited its foes to 49.7 points per game and 33.9 percent shooting in its six wins.
  • Kihei Clark has an 11-game 3-point streak dating back to last season and is shooting a career-best 42.9 percent from 3-point range this season.
  • JMU Head Coach Mark Byington served as a graduate manager (1999-2001) and director of basketball operations (2004-05) at Virginia.
  • JMU Director of Player Development and Recruiting Calvin Baker played three seasons at UVA from 2008-10.

Broadcast Information

  • The Virginia-JMU game will be televised on CBS Sports Network and streamed on the CBS Sports App.
  • The game will also be broadcast on Virginia Sports Radio Network, VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Sports app.
  • Live statistics will be located on VirginiaSports.com and Virginia Sports app.

The Head Coach

  • Dean and Markel Families Head Men’s Basketball Coach Tony Bennett has a 301-106 (.740) mark in 13 seasons at UVA and 370-139 (.727) career mark in 16 seasons as a head coach.
  • UVA is 151-44 (.774) in non-conference action under Bennett.
  • Bennett won his 300th game at Virginia with the 61-43 victory against Lehigh on Nov. 26, 2021.
  • The three-time National (2007, 2015 and 2018) and four-time ACC Coach of the Year (2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019) guided the Cavaliers to their 10th ACC regular-season championship in 2020-21.
  • In 2018-19, Bennett led the Cavaliers to their first NCAA national championship, a share of their ninth ACC regular-season title and a school-record 35 wins.
  • Bennett has led UVA to 10 consecutive postseason appearances (2012-21) and seven consecutive NCAA tournaments (2014-21).

Hoo Are These Cavaliers?

  • The Cavaliers play defense, take good shots, share and take care of the basketball, rebound, and play more defense.
  • UVA is led by its returning backcourt of Kihei Clark (10.7 ppg & 4.2 apg) and Reece Beekman (6.4 ppg, 4.6 apg & 2.3 spg), and the additions of transfers Jayden Gardner (14.1 ppg & 7.9 rpg) and Armaan Franklin (11.6 ppg).
  • Clark has played 102 games at UVA and has an 11-game 3-point streak dating back to last season, while Beekman ranks 12th nationally with 21 steals.
  • The Cavaliers added transfers Gardner (East Carolina) and Franklin (Indiana) to fill the void left by standouts Sam Hauser (16 ppg), Jay Huff (13 ppg) and Trey Murphy III (11.3 ppg).
  • Gardner averaged 18.5 points and 8.9 rebounds in 79 career games at East Carolina, while Franklin averaged 11.4 points and shot 42.5 percent from 3-point range in 2020-21.
  • Kadin Shedrick (6.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg & 2.9 bpg) and Francisco Caffaro (4 rpg) anchor the paint, while Taine Murray (60% 3FGs), Igor Miliĉić Jr. (35.7% 3FGs), Malachi Poindexter, Kody Stattmann and Carson McCorkle provide perimeter depth.

Virginia All-Time vs. JMU

  • Virginia is 11-0 all-time against JMU in the series that dates back to the 1977-78 season.
  • UVA is 3-0 vs. the Dukes in Harrisonburg, including a 79-51 win on Nov. 14, 2014.
  • The Cavaliers are 7-0 against the Dukes in Charlottesville, including a 65-34 win in the last meeting between the teams at JPJ in 2019.
  • Virginia head coach Tony Bennett is 3-0 all-time against JMU.

Last Time vs. the Dukes

  • Mamadi Diakite set career highs in points (19) and rebounds (13) for his first career double-double as Virginia cruised past in-state foe JMU 65-34 on Nov. 10, 2019.
  • Braxton Key added 14 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double-double,
  • UVA held its second straight opponent to 34 points and yielded JMU to 22.6 percent shooting (12-53) from the field.
  • Jay Huff added 11 points and seven rebounds and Kihei Clark handed out six assists.
  • UVA outrebounded JMU 50-36, recording 50 rebounds for the first time since the 2015 season.

Last Time Out

  • Jayden Gardner’s step-back jumper with 0.9 seconds remaining lifted Virginia (6-3, 1-0 ACC) to an improbable 57-56 win over Pitt (2-6, 0-1 ACC) on Dec. 3 at John Paul Jones Arena.
  • Gardner’s 3-point play with 9.7 seconds and ensuing five second in-bounds violation on Pitt set up the game-winner which came off a rebound on a Taine Murray missed 3-pointer.
  • Gardner finished with a game-high 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, tallied five rebounds and tied his career high of four assists.
  • Armaan Franklin had 10 points and Kihei Clark added nine.
  • UVA had a season-high 18 assists.
  • John Hugley led the Panthers with 12 points.

Cavaliers vs. The Commonwealth

  • UVA is 73-16 against teams from Virginia since 1999-00.
  • UVA has won 26 of its last 30 games against teams from Virginia, including a 73-52 win over Radford on Nov. 12, 2021.
  • UVA went 1-1 against the Commonwealth in 2020-21, posting a win vs. William & Mary (76-40) and loss at Virginia Tech (65-51).

On The Horizon

  • Virginia returns to action against Fairleigh Dickinson in nonconference action on Saturday, Dec. 18. Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena is set for 2 p.m. on ACC Network.