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Virginia’s emergent big men take the floor Monday night against a busy Coppin State squad in Charlottesville, Va.

While the visiting Eagles (0-3) are playing for the fourth time in eight days, the Cavaliers (1-0) opened the season on Wednesday with a 65-56 win over Campbell, fueled by Jacob Cofie and Blake Buchanan.

Cofie, a 6-foot-10 freshman, scored a game-high 16 points off the bench on 7-of-8 shooting with two 3-pointers and grabbed six rebounds. Buchanan, a 6-foot-11 sophomore starter, contributed 10 points, seven boards, five assists and three blocked shots. They had only one turnover and three fouls between them.

“He had a great game,” Buchanan said of Cofie. “I’m super, super happy for him. I’m pretty hard on him in practice, and I get on him, and I try to do my best that I can to kind of mentor him a little bit.”

Buchanan scored in double figures for the first time since the second game of his freshman season, an 18-point effort against Florida on Nov. 10, 2023.

“I just feel a lot more natural this year,” Buchanan said. “I’m not reactive. I know where to be. I know what to expect. I’ve already done a year of college basketball, so the game’s a lot slower this year than it was last year. I definitely am stronger from last year, so I’m more physical and I can do a little bit more stuff with that.”

It was the first win for Virginia under interim head coach Ron Sanchez. During his final season as the head coach at Charlotte in 2022-23, his 49ers opened the season with an 82-59 victory against Coppin State.

Coppin State fell 64-53 against Rider in its home opener in Baltimore on Saturday.

Derrius Ward and Toby Nnadozie scored 18 points each but the rest of the Eagles combined for just 17. Ward, a two-time transfer, leads the team with 15.3 points per game.

Coppin State went 2-27 in alumnus Larry Stewart’s first season as head coach in 2023-24. Stewart was a two-time MEAC Player of the Year in 1989-90 and 1990-91.

–Field Level Media