Virginia didn’t need long to flip Friday night on its head.
After a shaky opening stretch against Richmond, the Cavaliers found their footing in a hurry and turned a close exhibition into a blowout, rolling past the Spiders 96-53 at John Paul Jones Arena in the second of UVA’s three preseason games.
Richmond had the upper hand early, climbing in front 20-12 midway through the first half. Then the game changed fast. Virginia answered with 26 straight points before the Spiders scored again, and the home team never let the gap get back into reach.
“Obviously we weren’t ready for a game like that or an opponent like that,” Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said.
Ryan Odom saw the same uneasy start from his side.
“I thought Richmond did a really nice job to start the game,” said Virginia’s second-year head coach. “They had us on our heels. We were a little bit tentative, not as aggressive as I'd hoped we would be to start the game.”
The spark came from Chance Mallory. The second-year point guard, who missed UVA’s first exhibition because of a minor injury, scored the first seven points of that decisive 26-0 burst.
Mooney pointed to the pressure Mallory creates, while Odom called the nearby St. Anne's-Belfield School graduate “the engine.”
"Chance is really the key," Mooney said. "He puts so much pressure on you."
A graduate of nearby St. Anne's-Belfield School, Mallory "is the engine," Odom said.
"There’s no question. He’s so fast up the court and just really ignites our offense and our defense in a lot of ways.”
Virginia carried a 43-28 lead into halftime and only widened the margin after the break. The Cavaliers controlled the glass by a wide margin, outrebounding Richmond 54-29, and they limited the Spiders to 25.4% shooting from the field. UVA also piled up 21 second-chance points.
The scoring was spread out nicely. Five Cavaliers finished in double figures: Mallory and Thijs De Ridder with 12 apiece, Martin Carrere with 12, Elijah Gertrude with 11 and Jan Vide with 11. Nolan Adekunle and Johann Grünloh added nine points each.
Virginia’s perimeter touch was another major difference. Carrere went 4 for 6 from deep, Gertrude hit 3 of 5, and the Cavaliers finished 14 for 28 from 3-point range.
“We have some good shooters,” said Odom, who went 3-1 against Richmond in his two years as VCU’s head coach.
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