Freshman Thijs De Ridder scored 20 points and Virginia cruised to an 81-62 victory against North Carolina Central on Friday night in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers (2-0) shot 38.9% (14 of 36) from 3-point range and generated clear advantages in rebounding (48-34) and bench points (32-7). Virginia finished with 22 assists on 28 made field goals.
De Ridder, who scored 21 in Monday’s season-opening win against Rider, hit 3 of 4 shots from behind the arc. Malik Thomas added 12 points, Sam Lewis and Ugonna Onyenso each scored 10 and Johann Grunloh grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked seven shots.
Gage Lattimore scored 22 points to lead NC Central (0-2). He was 5 of 6 from 3-point range, but the rest of the Eagles were a combined 1 of 7. Khouri Carvey added 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The Cavaliers never trailed in the game and led by as many as 31 points.
Jacari White drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to give Virginia a 15-2 lead at the first media timeout.
Onyenso scored seven straight points to extend the lead to 26-5 with 11:14 remaining.
NC Central missed 12 of its first 13 shots from the field. Lattimore’s 3-pointer at the 10:23 mark was the Eagles’ first field goal in more than eight minutes.
The Cavaliers’ advantage ballooned to 36-10 on a triple by De Ridder with 7:09 left in the half.
NC Central showed signs of life with an 11-0 run to get within 36-21 and trailed 42-25 at intermission.
De Ridder scored eight points during a 13-2 spurt early in the second half as the lead grew to 55-29. He reached 20 points with a 3-pointer that gave Virginia its largest lead at 65-34 with 10:39 to play.
NC Central shot 31.7% from the field for the game.
Including Monday’s 48-point loss at NC State, the Eagles are 0-2 against Atlantic Coast Conference teams, with another scheduled next Friday against No. 25 North Carolina.
–Field Level Media
