COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Virginia spent most of Friday night chasing Maryland, absorbing the kind of road pressure that can tilt a game off its axis. Then the Cavaliers settled in, found the rim, and turned a rough first half into an 87-83 win at XFINITY Center in front of 16,908.
No. 6 UVA was down 11 at halftime and still trailed by 10 with 12:20 left before finally flipping the script. The comeback pushed Virginia to 5-0 and marked its 10th win in the last 11 meetings with Maryland, now a Big Ten program.
“It was a great environment,” Virginia head coach Ryan Odom said after his team’s first true road game of the season.
Maryland’s physical edge bothered Virginia early, and Odom said the Terrapins “put a ton of pressure on us in the first half to respond,” adding, “and we had no other choice but to respond appropriately after halftime. Once we got to halftime, our guys did a nice job of regrouping and trying to play more like ourselves.”
Sam Lewis was the spark. The Virginia guard poured in a career-high 28 points, with most of his damage coming at the basket. Thijs De Ridder added 20 points and seven rebounds, Johann Grünloh finished with 15 points, seven boards and three blocked shots, and Chance Mallory chipped in 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and one steal.
Lewis said Maryland’s approach had an effect early.
“Maryland’s physical play “rattled us a little bit in the first half,” Virginia guard Sam Lewis said, “but in the second half, we regrouped and came out with a fight.”
The defining stretch came late, when De Ridder buried a 3-pointer to make it 85-77 with 1:32 remaining. That shot sent a wave of Maryland fans toward the exits, many of them still holding the Crush the Cavs T-shirts handed out before tipoff.
Virginia did most of its damage inside after halftime. The Cavaliers shot 76.9% from the floor in the second half, attacking a Maryland defense that took away the perimeter but left openings near the basket. UVA, which had entered the night averaging 11.5 made 3-pointers per game, attempted only 10 shots from deep and still piled up 58 points in the paint.
Odom said the Cavaliers are built to have balance, but the numbers from Friday told the story.
“We got to the rim and where we needed to be and scored. And you have to read the defense.
How's the defense playing you? And you have to take what the defense gives you at times.
And not that they were giving us those layups. I don't mean it that way.
It's more reading the game. And I think our guys did a nice job of figuring out where we could get baskets.
And it wasn't firing 3s in that game.”
The win also showed Virginia’s veteran backbone. When the game tightened, Odom leaned on Lewis, De Ridder, Grünloh and Mallory, all key pieces from last season’s 30-6 team.
“These guys have been in some battles,” Odom said, “there's no question about it. Last season, we had some tight, tight wins, especially on the road.
We had to answer. Today, the pressure was on us to play better if we were going to have a chance to win and play more like ourselves ...
I think the guys did a nice job overall of getting ourselves back in position to transfer the pressure the other direction. Finishing it out was really good.”
Maryland dropped to 1-2. Virginia, after a night that started with trouble and ended with control, walked out of College Park with another win in the series and a road test it had to earn.
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