Tale of the Tape: Virginia vs. Morgan State

Posted on Monday, Dec. 3, 2018, 5:20 pm

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If the month of December is anything like November for the Virginia men’s basketball team, the Cavaliers will be sitting pretty heading into ACC competition in 2019.

The Wahoos went 7-0 with a Battle 4 Atlantis championship trophy and an ACC/Big Ten Challenge victory over former conference nemesis Maryland, extending their nation-best win streak in the month of November to 25 in a row in the process.

Virginia is No. 4 in both the AP and USA Today polls, and is also fourth in the KenPom rankings (3rd defense, 10th offense). The ‘Hoos sit at the top of the NCAA NET ratings as well.

The first of UVA’s five December games brings Morgan State from the MEAC to town tonight at 7 p.m. at JPJ.

The Bears, coached by Todd Bozeman, come in with a record of 2-4 overall. They are currently ranked 324th overall (294th defense, 331st offense) out of 353 Division I teams by KenPom and 263rd in the NET ratings.

MSU opened the season with three tough road losses at Villanova, Saint Francis and DePaul before winning a pair of home games over Navy and Mount St. Mary’s.

The Bears nearly made it three straight Wednesday but fell 82-75 at George Mason, despite a career-high 18 points from sophomore guard Kyson Rawls, who became the fifth player to lead the team in scoring in its six games.

Seven Morgan State players average six-plus points a game, with three of them — Sherwyn Devonish, Stanley Davis and Tyler Streeter — tied for the scoring lead with 8.7 points a game each.

The Cavaliers will be back at JPJ Sunday afternoon against VCU before a 10-day break for Winter exams, playing at South Carolina on Dec. 19. Virginia will close out 2018 and the non-conference schedule with two more at home, Dec. 22 against William & Mary and a New Year’s Eve final tune-up against Marshall.