Tuesday, the Virginia men’s basketball team looks to continue its strong start to the season when it hosts Grambling State at John Paul Jones Arena.
Despite the recent dismissal of junior forward Austin Nichols, who only played one game in a Cavalier uniform, No. 7 Virginia (3-0) crushed Yale Sunday, 62-38.
Virginia’s defense was in full effect yet again as they held the Bulldogs (2-1) to a season-low 38 points. In the two games prior, Yale averaged 93.5 points.
The Cavaliers offense got off to a slow start — with about eight minutes left in the half, Yale was up, 10-9. However, Virginia hit a couple of shots and finish the half up, 28-21.
The second half was a different story. Freshman guard Kyle Guy hit two threes early in the half. After a few games at JPJ, the young player is starting to feed off the home crowd.
“It was surreal when the crowd erupted after we hit a shot or got a stop,” Guy said. “That is my favorite part, when the shot clock is going down on defense and you can feel the energy from all of the fans. I have definitely noticed that and it was amazing to be a part of it.”
The highlight of the game was the Cavalier bench, which outscored Yale’s 34-11. In addition to Guy, who finished with 12 points, redshirt freshman forward Mamadi Diakite contributed five points and seven rebounds, in addition to four blocks that brought the crowd to its feet.
“Defensively, Mamadi made some high-level plays, especially with rim protection,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “I think that [Diakite’s] development, his maturity and all those things through the course of the year will be good for us and will help him a lot in light of having one less player, and with not having Austin [Nichols] in the interior mix.”
Junior guard Marial Shayok also contributed off the bench. He led the Cavaliers in scoring with his second 15 point game of the season.
“Prior to going in you get to see the field, and then you play as hard as you can and try as hard as you can to see and contribute and just fit in with the guys already playing,” Shayok said.
Scoring was again distributed evenly across the roster as junior guard Darius Thompson added 11 points and senior guard London Perrantes had another quiet scoring game with eight points. Perrantes also dished out seven assists in the win.
Grambling State (1-2) is fresh off a 71-54 loss against Providence. Despite shooting 46 percent from the field, the Tigers went only 1-of-2 from three and barely shot over 50 percent at the free throw line.
Senior guard Ervin Mitchell currently leads the team in scoring with 13.3 points a game, followed by senior guard Remond Brown with 11.7 points a game. In Gambling State’s win against North Carolina A&T, Brown led the team to victory with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting.
Junior forward Averyl Ugba has also put up consistent scoring and rebounding numbers so far, averaging 8.3 points and a team-high seven rebounds per game.
Last year, the Tigers finished the season with a 7-24 overall record. Their 4-14 conference mark landed them in last place in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Grambling State’s basketball team has never qualified for the NCAA Division I Tournament.
The mismatch between Virginia and Grambling State will be a good chance for the Cavaliers to
smooth out their offense and test out different player rotations, especially with the abrupt loss of Nichols.
On moving forward as a team after the Nichols’ dismissal, Bennett voiced confidence.
“We will see all different kinds of teams and we will just have to be ready for it, and will probably at times have to look at playing four guards,” Bennett said. “That presents some challenges for sure, but we’ll just keep adjusting.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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