By Jerry Ratcliffe

Grant Leonard’s emphasis for his Queens (Charlotte) basketball team on Friday afternoon was to protect the paint, which his Royals did a good job of carrying out their mission.

Still, despite Leonard’s strategy, he was forced to pick his poison and the poison came in a lethal dose of 3-pointers from Bonusphere in Virginia’s 94-69 win over visiting Queens.

The Cavaliers (6-1) boasted a program-record six players with multiple 3-pointers, led by Thijs De Ridder’s game-high 21 points (2 of 2 from the arc). Six players scored in double digits in the game, all of which had at least 2 triples: Sam Lewis 15 (3 of 5), Devin Tillis 13 (2 of 2), Johann Grünloh 13 (2 of 2), Chance Mallory 11 (3 of 6) and Jacari White 11 (3 of 7).

In all, UVA’s 15 triples (15 of 33) were a season-high and the most 3-pointers in a game since 2021 (at Wake Forest). Ryan Odom’s squad drilled 10 3’s en route to a 46-29 halftime lead, the most by a Virginia team since 2019 (at Syracuse).

Friday was another example of the Cavaliers’ versatility, the potential to win with either a physical inside game or from the perimeter where a bevy of shooters reside.

“I think we have similar built rosters, but on a different level,” Leonard said of his 3-5 Royals, the preseason favorite to capture the Atlantic Sun Conference. “We have a lot of the same versatility, so I was happy that as we switched a lot, they weren’t able to hurt us in the post and we actually outrebounded them on the offensive glass (18-14).

“With all the cross matches, we were able to hold the fort. I tried to make an emphasis on protecting our paint, which we did a really good job in the first half, not as great the second half. But the opposition of that is then we gave up 15 threes, which hats off to them … five guys who could shoot on the floor at all times.”

Actually six, but who’s counting.

Maybe the surprising fact from all that was that starting guard Malik Thomas wasn’t among those half dozen. Thomas, the team’s second-leading scorer with a 14.3 average, has made 12 triples this season, but was 0 for 5 and finished with 8 points.

Odom said that Friday was a big game for his program because the team was bouncing back from a loss to Butler in last Sunday’s Greenbrier Tip-Off, a defeat that he used as a teaching tool in practice the past week.

“We learned a lot over the course of that weekend about ourselves, that some stuff we liked, some stuff that we certainly needed to improve upon,” Odom said. “We knew this was going to be a stiff challenge defensively because Queens is one of the better offensive teams in the country, certainly for their league.”

Leonard uses a five-out offense that features players who can create and penetrate and good shooters with unique slips to the basket combined with flare screens, making it difficult to defend.

Queens also offered up some opposition in the paint with 6-9 forwards Avantae Parker and Maban Jabriel, 6-10 Gus Larson and 6-8 Carson Schwieger. But it was the Royals guards that produced the points: Nasir Mann (18), Jordan Watford and Yoav Berman 10 apiece.

Still, it was clearly a mismatch in talent, led by De Ridder (8 for 10 from the field). The big Belgian scored in double figures for the sixth time in seven games and produced 20 or more points for the fifth time.

De Ridder reached double figures before the Royals could blink, scoring 10 points in the first five minutes as UVA bolted to an 18-5 advantage. The Wahoos expanded their cushion late in the half with a 16-0 run that made it 43-19.

Virginia led 46-29 at the break and blew things wide open with a 20-3 run early in the second half to open a 33-point bulge (74-41).

While Odom was pleased with his team sharing the ball — he complained about the Cavaliers having been seduced by too much dribbling last weekend — he wasn’t so happy with rebounding, particularly on the defensive glass.

UVA had 24 assists (5 by starting point guard Dallin Hall) on 32 baskets (only 8 turnovers), but was essentially matched with points in the paint (30-28) and outmatched on second-chance points (20-13).

Virginia’s seven-footers, Ugonna Onyenso (senior) and Grünloh (freshman), who rank No. 1 and No. 5 in the nation in blocked-shot percentage, had six of the team’s eight blocks against Queens, four by Onyenso.

One of the bright spots for UVA was Tillis’ continued comeback from preseason knee surgery. The backup forward made 3 of 4 field goals, both triples he attempted, and all five foul shots in addition to five rebounds. Tillis made his season debut last weekend, mostly scoring with strong moves in the paint, but displayed versatility to his game Friday.

“He’s going to come off the bench and sub for Thjis, but we’re trying to figure out can he sub for other positions as well,” Odom said. “You saw the lineups that we played today and had the two-bigs lineup a little bit to see if they could defend a really tough offense that’s spread out. And then you also saw Tillis, Thjis and one of the bigs, something that we’re going to need over the course of the season and we’re going to want to cultivate.”

Lewis, sometimes overshadowed by all the talent even though he’s a starter, was an impressive 6 of 9 from the field and added four assists.

“Sam’s a really good player and we have quite a few good players on our roster,” Odom said. “Guys that deserve time and deserve attention, but Sam understands that the open guy is the go-to guy for us and the more that we pass the ball to one another, the ball will find you. But Sam did a nice job of picking his spots.”

Notebook

• Virginia’s next game is Wednesday at Texas (6-2) in the ACC-SEC Shootout. The Longhorns defeated NC State, 102-97, on Wednesday.
• Queens coach Grant Leonard, sporting a brown holiday sweater emblazoned with the slogan: “Leftovers are for Quitters,” gave a hearty shoutout to former Virginia star guard J.R. Reynolds after the game. “Hats off to J.R. Reynolds, Virginia legend,” Leonard said. “He was on our staff for two years and he set up this game. I love J.R. (who is now with Nebraska-Omaha). We don’t get this game without J.R., and to be honest, these games that we’re going to play a Power 4 or Power 5, those are the teams that will play us. No one else would because we’re picked to win our league and we have a lot back, so teams didn’t want to schedule us.”
• Queens has already played UVA, Utah, No. 13 BYU and Ole Miss.

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• UVA improved to 6-1
• UVA is 3-0 when scoring 90 or more points
• UVA has scored 80 or more points in six games and is 54-1 when scoring 80 or more points since 2009-10
• UVA had six players with multiple 3-pointers in a game for the first time in school history
• A 20-2 second-half run gave UVA its largest lead of 33 at 74-41
• UVA drilled 10 3-pointers en route to a 46-29 halftime lead
• UVA made 10 3-pointers in a half for the first time since at Syracuse on March 4, 2019
• UVA has 11 assists on 15 made field goals in the first half
• UVA’s 16-0 run extended its lead to 43-19 in the first half
• UVA is 45-10 in its last 55 home contests
• UVA is 109-11 in non-league action at JPJ since 2009-10
• UVA’s 15 3-pointers marked a season-high and most since 15 at Wake Forest on Jan. 21, 2023
• UVA had a season-high 24 assists

Series Notes

• Virginia is 1-0 all-time vs. Queens

Player Notes

• Leading Scorers: Thijs De Ridder (21), Sam Lewis (15), Johann Grünloh (13), Devin Tillis (13), Chance Mallory (11), Jacari White (11)
• UVA had six players in double figures for the first time since vs. Maryland on March 9, 2008 – Sean Singletary (27), Adrian Joseph (13), Jamil Tucker (13), Mamadi Diane (12), Calvin Baker (11) and Laurynas Mikalauskas (11)
• De Ridder recorded his fifth 20-point game
• De Ridder reached double figures for the sixth time at UVA
• Grünloh had a season-high two 3-pointers
• Grünloh reached double figures for the third time
• Grünloh (2 blocks) has two or more blocks in every game
• Tillis had a season-high 13 points
• Mallory reached double figures for the fifth time
• Tillis reached double figures for the first time at UVA (51st career)
• Lewis reached double figures for the fourth time at UVA (37th career)
• White reached double figures for the fifth time at UVA (54th career)
• Ugonna Onyenso (4 blocks) has multiple blocks in five games
• Dallin Hall contributed a team-high five assists
• UVA started Hall, Lewis, Grünloh, De Ridder and Malik Thomas for the seventh straight game

Season Player Stats