Story by Scott Ratcliffe

A couple of key scoring runs, one in each half, propelled No. 5 Virginia to what turned out to be an easy 72-40 win over William & Mary Saturday before a holiday crowd of 14,623 at John Paul Jones Arena. The Tribe (4-8) made things a little interesting early in the second half, but UVA flexed its muscles on both ends of the floor and got the job done to move to a perfect 11-0 on the season with one non-conference matchup to go.

Sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter broke out of his brief slump offensively, leading the Cavaliers with 18 points — half of which came from the free-throw line, a career high for Hunter from the stripe.

“In the past two games, I have been kind of passive and kind of letting the game come to me,” admitted Hunter, “and I just tried to be more assertive this game.”

Added UVA coach Tony Bennett of Hunter’s performance: “We tried to put him in spots to be aggressive and he had the right mindset. He saw one go in early but we have a couple different base offenses and one of them that we were working on is really beneficial to De’Andre. He can get some lane line-drives and post-ups.”

Junior sharpshooter Kyle Guy added 11 of his 16 points in the second half and tied a career high with his seven rebounds, while backcourt mate Ty Jerome pulled down a career-best (and game-high) nine boards to go with his eight points, four assists and two steals.

“I think everyone did a good job of getting rebounds,” said Jerome. “Whoever was guarding their five-man had their hands full trying to keep him off the glass and trying to keep him in front and banging with him. It was [the guards’] job to come back and rebound the ball as a team, and we did a good job of that today.”

W&M hung around in the opening minutes of the contest, grabbing an early 6-5 lead until a 20-2 Cavalanche swung the game in UVA’s favor.

Hunter and Jerome jump started the run with a pair of buckets each before senior Jack Salt caught a shot attempt in mid-air and laid it home to give the ‘Hoos a 15-8 lead. Braxton Key was there for a putback and then Mamadi Diakite scored on a nice move off the glass next time down to push the advantage to double digits. Out of a timeout, Jerome sank a 3-ball fader from the corner with the shot clock dwindling down before Jay Huff came in and knocked down a triple from the top of the key to cap the swing, which put UVA in front 25-8 with 8:28 left in the first half.

The Wahoos made 10 of their first 15 field-goal attempts, while conversely W&M connected on just 3 of its first 17 until junior forward Nathan Knight came to the rescue. Knight, the team’s leading scorer, got his second basket of the game to fall on a drive from the baseline with 7:27 left, ending a field goal-less drought of 6½ minutes for the visitors.

Knight went on to score eight of William & Mary’s following 11 points, and L.J. Owens had a chance for an old-fashioned, three-point play at the buzzer but couldn’t sink the freebie, and Virginia took a 34-23 halftime lead into the break. UVA shot 52 percent (13 for 25) in the first half, compared to just 33 percent (8 for 24) for W&M.

The Tribe got a Knight jumper and a Justin Pierce 3-pointer out of the gate, and all of a sudden it was a six-point game, 34-28, with still 18 minutes and change remaining. It turned out to be Pierce’s only 3 points of the game (on 1-of-6 shooting), as he came in averaging 17.6 a game.

Knight scored the Tribe’s only basket over the next nine-plus minutes, and the ‘Hoos took advantage with a 17-2 spurt over that stretch, extending the lead to 21, 51-30, midway through the second half.

“We just get back to what we do,” said Hunter, “play defense and run offense, and I feel like we really did that.”

Diakite got it started with a turnaround shot before a Guy corner 3 and a Salt flush off an assist from Diakite. Hunter patiently got his feet set and swished his only 3-point shot of the game during the run, and Guy punctuated it with three straight baskets.

“We were outclassed for sure by a great basketball team — they’re terrific on both ends of the floor…,” said W&M coach Tony Shaver. “They’re better in every position than we are and they played better as a team as a team than we did.”

Guy’s second 3-pointer of the day moved him into 10th place all by his lonesome on the school’s career 3-pointers list (163), passing Devin Smith (2003-05).

Knight scored the Tribe’s next six points before fouling out with 5:56 to play, and Virginia made 13 of its 14 free throws over the final nine minutes to seal the deal. Redshirt freshman Francesco Badocchi got a well-deserved ovation when he finally stepped onto the floor to make his collegiate debut after sitting out last year and missing every game of the season up until Saturday. Badocchi couldn’t get his lone shot attempt to drop, but did secure two rebounds in less than three minutes of action. For good measure, the Cavalier reserves held the Tribe without a basket for the final four minutes.

William & Mary was held to 32-percent shooting in the second half and finished 16 for 49 on the afternoon (32.7 percent), and 2 for 20 from downtown.

“That was a tough offense to guard,” admitted Guy, referring to the Tribe. “Coach [Brad Soderberg] did a great job of preparing us. The managers and walk-ons were coming in early for practice to make sure they were running it as hard as they can and as efficiently as they could. So that really helped us disrupt their shots and know where they were going to be at times.”

Knight led all scorers with 22 points (9 for 17 FG) to go with his team-high five rebounds. Freshman guard Chase Audige was the only one of Knight’s teammates that scored more than three points, finishing with seven.

UVA shot 48 percent on the day (24 for 50 FG, 5 for 13 from long range) and outrebounded the Tribe handily, 42-24. Each team committed seven turnovers. Braxton Key had 9 points (3-3 FG, 3-3 FT) and four rebounds off the bench, while starters Diakite and Salt each finished with 6 points. Kihei Clark scored just 2 points in nearly 27 minutes as he continues to recover from wrist surgery, but did not commit a single turnover in Saturday’s victory.

Bennett goes for career win No. 300 on New Year’s Eve at JPJ, as the ‘Hoos close out the non-ACC slate against Marshall at 1 p.m.