Elijah Saunders finished with 21 points and eight rebounds to lead host Virginia to a 63-58 victory over American University on Sunday afternoon in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers (7-5) won their nonconference finale and handed the upset-minded Eagles (6-6) their second consecutive loss and second against an Atlantic Coast Conference foe this season.
Virginia, in its first season under coach Ron Sanchez following the abrupt retirement of longtime coach Tony Bennett, held off American in the closing minutes thanks to clutch defense and free throw shooting.
Leading by three, Jacob Cofi came up with a huge steal of American’s Geoff Sprouse as he began to drive to the lane with 25.1 seconds left.
Saunders, who shot 7 for 9 from the field and 7 for 8 from the free throw line, proceeded to hit a pair of free throws to give Virginia a 58-53 lead.
Matt Mayock, who led the Eagles with 16 points, buried a corner three-pointer with 9.2 seconds left to give the Eagles a flicker of hope and cut their deficit to 59-56. But Saunders connected on two more free throws at the other end for the Cavaliers.
Greg Jones hit another triple with under a second left to cut Virginia’s lead to 61-58. But Taine Murray iced the game with two more free throws.
American University had an upset in its sights after putting together a 6-0 run over a span of 1:22, which gave it a 47-42 lead with 8:16 left on back-to-back three-pointers by Mayock and Sprouse.
Virginia answered with a 7-0 surge of its own to retake the lead 49-47 with 5:49 left.
Another 7-0 Cavaliers’ run after American took a 51-49 lead put Virginia ahead for good. Murray’s 3-pointer with 1:48 left capped the scoring surge. Murray totaled 13 points and Isaac McKneely had 11 points and five rebounds.
Colin Smalls and Matt Rogers each totaled 12 points for the Eagles. Rogers also had seven rebounds.
–Field Level Media
