Isaac McKneely scored 21 points to fuel Virginia’s wire-to-wire 74-56 victory over Boston College in Atlantic Coast Conference play Tuesday in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers (9-10, 2-6 ACC) snapped a five-game losing streak, their longest in 15 years, by shooting 55 percent (11 of 20) from 3-point range. McKneely was 6-for-9 from behind the arc and added a three-point play.
Andrew Rohde added 16 points as Virginia matched its season high for points. The Cavaliers’ pesky defense collected 10 steals and limited Boston College to 26.7 percent shooting (4 of 15) from downtown.
Virginia improved to 4-0 this season when scoring 70 or more points.
The Eagles (9-10, 1-7) lost their fifth consecutive game and fell to 0-4 on the road. Fred Payne scored 17 points off the bench, Chad Venning had 14 points and Dion Brown added 11.
Players from both teams were ejected in the second half after drawing flagrant-2 fouls.
Boston College’s leading scorer Donald Hand Jr. was tossed with 16:31 left after swinging at Virginia’s Rohde. Forty-eight seconds later, the Cavaliers’ Elijah Saunders was thrown out for shoving the Eagles’ Chas Kelley III.
Hand, who came in averaging 14.7 points, finished with five. Saunders had 10 points and six rebounds.
Boston College trailed by 18 at intermission and never made a significant dent in the deficit. The Cavaliers built their largest lead at 65-39 on McKneely’s sixth 3-pointer with 6:59 to play.
McKneely buried his first four 3-point shots as the Cavaliers constructed a 41-23 halftime lead.
Virginia’s lead reached double figures at 14-4 on Blake Buchanan’s dunk at the 13:55 mark. The advantage ballooned to 20 points at 35-15 on McKneely’s 3-pointer with 4:13 left in the half, and Rohde’s triple put the Cavaliers up 41-21 with 47 seconds remaining before the break.
Virginia sank almost as many 3-pointers (nine) as Boston College had field goals (10) in the first half.
–Field Level Media
