The Virginia men's basketball team tallied the ACC's seventh win in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, knocking off Minnesota 86-78 last night at University Hall.
The Cavaliers (4-0) were paced by junior Elton Brown and freshman Gary Forbes, with 26 and 22 points respectively. With the loss, Minnesota fell to 2-2.
"It's a great win for our team," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "Minnesota has a great basketball tradition."
From the opening tip, Virginia came out with intensity, not allowing Minnesota to take an early lead and dictate the flow of the game. The Cavaliers were tough defensively against the Golden Golphers, taking away their shooting game.
"Our defense was pretty good, we held them to 37 percent from the floor," Gillen said.
This was the third time this season that the Cavaliers had held an opponent to shooting under 40 percent in a game.
Virginia had to play defense against one of the top freshman, and top player, in college basketball in Kris Humphries. Humphries netted 32 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for Minnesota in the loss. For the Cavaliers, Brown appeared to be Humphries' exact opposite, scoring almost all of his 26 points in the paint, making 10-of-16 shots.
"He's a load in there," Minnesota coach Dan Monson said of Brown. "I thought [junior center Jeff] Hagan did a good job against him, but he was tough to handle."
Forbes gave an outstanding performance for Virginia in the victory as well, making steals on defense and knocking down clutch shots on offense, going 8-of-14 from the floor and snagging nine rebounds.
"I think Gary played a good game, [but] he's got a lot to learn," Gillen said. "We had to take him out of the game a few times because his back was hurting him."
One of the major statistics in the game was turnovers, with Minnesota having 18 for the game and Virginia only half of that with nine. The Cavaliers pressured Minnesota on offense all night, forcing turnovers and also keeping them from getting high percentage looks at the basket.
"Most of our turnovers were from the big guys," Monson said. "They just did a great job of getting us out of rhythm offensively."
With seven minutes left in the second half, Virginia put the game out of reach. Leading 66-62, the Cavaliers understood they had to put some distance between themselves and the Gophers. Buckets from Forbes, sophomore Derrick Byars and Brown put Virginia up 72-62, blowing the game wide open with about five minutes left in regulation.
"I think this was the biggest challenge for us this season," Byars said.
Minnesota, however, did out-rebound Virginia 51 to 40, with more than double the offensive rebounds of the Cavaliers.
"The team that controls the boards, controls the game," Gillen said. "It's a big problem for us."
Virginia still has issues to address on both sides of the ball, but last night's win showed a lot of promise for the rest of the season. The Cavaliers will travel to VMI tomorrow for their next non-conference matchup.
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