Virginia Basketball dominates GW in 76-57 win

The No. 5 Virginia Cavaliers improved to 2-0 on the season with a dominating 76-57 win over the visiting George Washington Colonials. Virginia shot 55% from the field and 42% from three in the game while holding GW to 40% shooting. The Hoos assisted 18 of their 30 made buckets.

Kyle Guy finished the game with 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists as he went 8-for-15 from the field. He had just one turnover in the game. Ty Jerome scored 20 points, reaching the 20 point mark in back-to-back games for the first time at Virginia. Jerome went 4-for-5 from three, and had six rebounds, seven assists, and four steals. De’Andre Hunter and Mamadi Diakite also reached double digit scoring with 10 points apiece.

D.J. Williams led the Colonials with 17 points. George Washington turned the ball over 17 times, leading to 15 points for the Hoos.

Jerome picked up where he left off last game, opening the scoring with a three pointer off of an assist from Jack Salt. A shot clock violation—the first of of the season for the Virginia defense—and a layup by Hunter put the Hoos up 5-0 before George Washington broke into the scoring column.

Salt showed more aggressiveness on offense, taking the ball in the post on back to back possessions. On the first, he short-armed a shot after backing his man down. On the second, he pulled in a wild pass from Kyle Guy and drove the lane for a floater and the bucket.

Virginia got their first double-digit lead of the day at 12-2 thanks to a layup and a deep three from Jerome on back-to-back possessions. GW went on a 6-0 run over a 2:19 span midway through the first half as the Hoos went 0-for-3 from the field with a turnover. A long jumper from Guy broke the dry spell, and Mamadi Diakite followed his own miss for a put-back score that put the home team back up by 13.

A nearly three minute scoring drought by the Colonials, paired with a 10-0 run for the Hoos, put GW down 33-12 with just under three minutes to go in the half. GW’s Armel Potter hit their first three of the game, but Guy responded with two of his own to increase Virginia’s lead to 23 points.

Foul trouble sent De’Andre Hunter and Braxton Key to the bench with 12:53 and 11:43 left in the half, respectively. From that point on, Virginia outscored GW 27-15 as the Hoos got more burn from Jay Huff, Kihei Clark, and Diakite. The Cavaliers went into halftime leading 42-17.

Guy paced the Cavaliers in the first half with 17 points, four rebounds, three assists, and no turnovers. Jerome added 12 points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals, and turned it over just once. The Hoos shot 16-for-29 (55%) from the field in the first half, including 5-for-12 (42%) from three.

Defensively, Virginia forced GW into eight turnovers and held the Colonials to just 23% shooting from the field and a 1-for-9 mark from three.

Virginia came up empty their first three trips in the second half as GW hit two free throws and two three-pointers to start on a quick 8-0 run. Jerome ended the run with a layup, and the defense followed it up with their first stop of the second half. A pair of pull-up jumpers from Hunter and Clark continued a 6-0 Virginia run in response as the defense stymied the Colonials on three straight trips.

George Washington got hot from three in the second half, hitting their first four attempts and closing Virginia’s lead to 20. Virginia’s defense imposed their will as GW experienced a 4:11 scoring drought as the UVA lead ballooned to 30 points. By the end of the game, GW closed to within 19 as the Hoos took their foot off the gas and Coach Bennett experimented with lineups.

The Hoos were called for 22 fouls in the game, and went just 8-for-13 from the line. Virginia shouldn’t have had 12 turnovers against a team like George Washington, which didn’t apply a lot of ball pressure. The offense moved the ball well for the majority of the game, but the Hoos have to clean up some of the careless fouls and mistakes as the season progresses.

Defense let up a bit in the second half as the Colonials shot 57% from the field and 55% from three (5-for-9).

Grant Kersey, a Charlottesville native and walk on who only dresses for home games, put the cherry on top of the game with two made free throws.