If Maryland Eastern Shore wants to pull off an upset at No. 24 Virginia on Tuesday night, it must control the tempo.
The newly ranked Cavaliers (8-1) enter the nonconference contest in Charlottesville, Va., with a 56-1 record since 2009-10 when they score 80 or more points.
That includes an 8-0 record this season, with Virginia’s only loss being an 80-73 setback against Butler on a neutral floor on Nov. 23.
The Virginia bench contributed 53 points last time out in Saturday’s 86-73 win against Dayton in Charlotte, N.C. Jacari White led the way with a season-high 25 points on perfect 7-of-7 shooting from 3-point range.
White, a transfer from North Dakota State, has made 12 consecutive triples over his last three games to break a school record held by Kyle Guy.
“It was just one of those performances where every time he was open and he had it, you could hear the crowd going, ‘Yes!'” Cavaliers coach Ryan Odom said. “It wasn’t that he had made the shot yet. It was just you knew that he was going to probably knock it in. And he’s in amazing company right now with Kyle Guy.”
It was the most points scored by Virginia’s reserves in a game since 2016. Chance Mallory added 12 points off the bench.
“I think there’s a lot of guys on this team that are good enough to start, but we have some depth, and that’s what makes us really good,” said starter Dallin Hall, who scored seven points. “There’s no lull when the second wave comes in. A lot of times they give us a boost. And in this day and age, I think you’ve got to have a lot of depth to compete at the highest level. We just play for each other. We feel like we’re a family and so we have a lot of fun playing the game together.”
Virginia has won three straight games. The ACC squad is 5-0 at home this season.
Maryland Eastern Shore (4-8) has lost two in a row. The MEAC member is 1-7 on the road.
The Hawks are coming off a 78-60 setback Saturday at American in Washington, D.C. They were outscored 42-12 from 3-point distance, which could be a problem against a Virginia team that has drained more than 10 treys in six games.
“I thought we played well early, but give American all the credit,” UMES coach Cleo Hill Jr. said. “They executed for 40 minutes. I don’t think they had any lulls. We had a lot of lulls. We executed really well early, and then it tailed off.”
The Hawks’ leading scorer is Joseph Locandro with 12.4 points per game. Thijs De Ridder leads four Cavaliers who are scoring in double figures with 16.4 points per game.
Virginia will take a break for final exams after Tuesday’s game and won’t play again until Dec. 20 at home against Maryland. UMES continues its busy schedule Friday at North Carolina A&T.
–Field Level Media
