No. 14 Cavaliers Race Past Yellow Jackets in Atlanta

No. 14 Virginia never trailed in a 94-68 win over ACC foe Georgia Tech late Wednesday night at McCamish Pavilion. Thijs De Ridder led the Cavaliers with a game-high 22 points

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

ATLANTA — The Virginia Cavaliers played a first half for the ages Wednesday night, turning in a comprehensive performance that left the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets shell-shocked at McCamish Pavilion.

After ringing up 59 points in the first 20 minutes, No. 14 UVA wasn’t as dominant in the second half, but the outcome of this ACC game was never in doubt. The final was 94-68, and the Wahoos headed home in high spirits.

“Really proud of the guys and the way that they started the game,” Virginia head coach Ryan Odom said.

“That start was something we’ve been looking for, for a couple games,” point guard Dallin Hall said. “Obviously, you don’t know if it’s going to be to that degree, but our intensity, our energy, the way we shared the ball, the pace we played with, and defensively we were dictating what they were doing offensively.”

The Hoos (23-3 overall, 11-2 ACC) went ahead to stay on the game’s first possession, which ended with the first of guard Malik Thomas’ five 3-pointers. UVA built a 42-9 lead, and Georgia Tech (11-16, 2-12) didn’t reach double figures until the 5:52 mark of the first half.

“That was fun,” said Hall, who with 12 points and 10 assists recorded his first double-double. “I love when the basketball is skipping around. That’s exactly what it was. We were finding the open man, and getting stops really allowed us to get out and run to be in those positions.”

At the end of a half in which the Hoos hit 10 of 18 shots from 3-point range (and 22 of 29 overall), the score was 59-27, and any hopes the Jackets had of pulling off an upset had faded. Not since Feb. 5, 1983, had Virginia scored so many points in the first 20 minutes of a game.

“That’s a lot of points in the first half,” UVA forward Thijs De Ridder said. “It was fun. Everybody was so confident.”

The win was the seventh straight for Virginia, which trails only No. 3 Duke in the ACC standings. It ended a challenging 10-game stretch in which the Cavaliers played away from John Paul Jones Arena seven times.

“A lot of trips,” De Ridder said, “a lot of planes.”

On those road trips, the Hoos have “seen a lot of different styles, pressure situations,” Odom said. “Certainly, these guys have some shared experience now. Any time you can go into somebody else’s home court and come out with a win, it’s a huge plus. And we’ve been very fortunate this year to do that. But we’ve got to play well regardless of where we’re playing, whether it’s home or on the road, and we have some tough ones coming.”

The Hoos’ next three opponents are Miami (21-5, 10-3), NC State (19-8, 10-4) and Duke (24-2, 13-1), the ACC’s third-, fourth- and first-place teams, respectively.

“We like where we’re at,” Hall said. “Obviously we want to continue to get better and keep playing our best basketball at the right time. But I think we’ve learned to trust one another in tough situations, find ways to win in different ways. We’ve had a lot of different ways we’ve had to win games, but there’s a new guy that’s ready to step up every night. We’ve just got to keep growing.”

The loss was the eighth straight for the Jackets, who may well have nightmares about what unfolded on their home court Wednesday night. When De Ridder wasn’t thundering down the court to throw down dunks, Thomas was bombing in 3-pointers, Hall was setting up teammates, Chance Mallory was pulling down rebounds, and Johann Grünloh and Ugonna Onyenso were swatting away shots.

“Offensively, our guys had much more thrust today,” Odom said, “whether it was after a miss or after a make. But our guys did a nice job. It’s something we’ve been working on and talking about and showing film on, just trying to get more aggressive and get the ball up the court a little bit faster than we’ve been doing it recently. But credit to our guys for just playing really tough defense and fighting and being ready to play.”

The 6-foot-9 De Ridder, who’s from Belgium, scored a game-high 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting. He also had five rebounds and a season-best three steals, each of which he turned into a breakaway dunk, showing what Hall called “Belgian brawn.”

For the season, De Ridder leads the Cavaliers in scoring (15.9 ppg), but No. 28 hadn’t hit double figures in any of his three previous games.

“I think he was just motivated to play tonight,” Odom said. “He’s had a couple of subpar games, for him, and he was motivated to play his best. And you could see it right away. Sometimes once you see that first shot go in or make a good play, then that can snowball in the right direction for you. And I think that happened certainly for him tonight.

“He’s a really good player, and it was just a matter of time before he kind of broke out of that.”

De Ridder, who’s right-handed, made several baskets with his left hand, showing off an array of moves that kept Georgia Tech defenders off-balance.

“I’ve worked really hard on my left,” he said, “because if you want to be a good player you have to be able to finish with both hands.”

The key for De Ridder, Odom said, is “just the pace and having a little bit more nuance to it, where he can create some fouls, getting to the basket. But I thought he did a nice job tonight of taking what was given to him and really stretching out and getting to the rim.”

Thomas, who finished with 17 points, was 5 for 8 from long range. That’s the most 3-pointers he’s made in a game since Jan. 17, and Odom said the Cavaliers’ coaches have encouraged players to shoot confidently from the perimeter.

“As long as they’re the right shots, it’s something we want to do,” Odom said.

Virginia, which made 14 treys, also was effective in transition, totaling 28 fast-break points.

“We’re just trying to play a little bit faster, getting back to earlier in the season,” Odom said. “As you get into conference play, things tend to slow down a little bit and can get really tight, and we’ve certainly had our fair share of tight games recently, and you have to try to find ways to get easy baskets in conference play.

“Our transition can be a weapon if we’re willing to use it. Tonight our guys did a nice job, and some of it was defense to offense. It was a steal, it was a deflection, and then we were able to get ahead.”

UVA’s twin towers—7-footers Grünloh and Onyenso—each blocked four shots, and Grünloh also contributed 11 points and six rebounds. Onyenso led Virginia with nine boards. Second on the team, with seven, was the 5-foot-10 Mallory, who also had five assists.

The low point of the game for the Cavaliers came with 11:41 to play, when reserve forward Devin Tillis dropped to the floor after a collision and lay there clutching his right knee.

Odom said afterward that he didn’t have an update on Tillis, who watched the rest of the game from the bench with an ice pack on his knee. The 6-foot-7 Tillis missed the first four games of the season while recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.

UP NEXT: Of UVA’s five remaining regular-season games, four are at John Paul Jones Arena. That stretch starts Saturday at 2 p.m., when Virginia hosts Miami (21-5, 10-3) in an ACC game to air on ESPN2. Miami rallied to edge Virginia Tech 67-66 on Tuesday night in Coral Gables, Fla.

In a pregame ceremony Saturday, the main court at JPJ will be dedicated to former Virginia head coach Tony Bennett.

The Cavaliers have won eight of their past nine games with the Hurricanes and lead the series 17-13.