The vaunted Virginia defense made its strongest showing of the season Friday night and the host Cavaliers crushed Coppin State 68-52 in a nonconference contest in Charlottesville, Va.
Virginia (2-2) jumped out to a huge lead early and never trailed, limiting the Eagles (1-6) to 30.8 percent shooting from the field and 26.5 percent (9 of 34) from 3-point distance.
The Cavaliers got double-doubles from Jayden Gardner (14 points, 12 rebounds) and Kadin Shedrick (10 points, 10 rebounds). Kihei Clark added 12 points and Igor Milicic Jr. scored 11.
Virginia scored 17 points off 11 turnovers by the visitors and outrebounded Coppin State by a 42-33 margin. The Cavaliers shot 41.8 percent overall and 27.8 percent (5 of 18) from downtown.
Daniel Titus topped the Eagles with 17 points. Sitah Conteh scored 10 points and Nendah Tarke contributed eight points, six rebounds and four steals.
Up by 15 at the half, Virginia quickly expanded the lead to 42-22 on Shedrick’s three-point play with 17:11 left.
The Eagles answered with a 14-4 run, fueled by three 3-pointers by Conteh, to get within 46-36 with 12:21 to play.
Kody Stattmann then drilled a 3-pointer to put UVA up 49-36. Coppin State went cold and never managed to trim the deficit to single digits.
The Cavaliers matched their largest lead at 65-44 with 3:52 remaining.
Virginia raced to a 16-2 lead as Coppin State missed 11 of its first 12 shots from the field. The Eagles didn’t get on the scoreboard until the 15:45 mark and scored only four points in the first 10 minutes.
The Cavaliers took their largest first-half lead at 23-6 on Stattmann’s layup with 8:04 left. Armaan Franklin’s three-point play in the final second gave UVA a 35-20 cushion at halftime.
–Field Level Media
