CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Kihei Clark scored 19 points, Jayden Gardner added 17 points and Virginia beat Boston College 67-55. Clark beat the halftime buzzer with a floater along the baseline to give Virginia a 30-25 lead, and he opened the second-half scoring with two free throws during a 12-2 run for Virginia’s first double-digit lead. The Cavaliers led by at least eight points the rest of the way. Virginia held Boston College to 5-of-21 shooting from 3-point range, and had a 26-12 advantage in made free throws. Clark made all 10 of his free throws and Gardner made seven straight as Virginia only missed three. James Karnik scored 16 points for Boston College.
“The defense early was really important and I just had a feeling it was going to be one of those blue collar games where you know it’s going to be physical,” said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett.
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“That was the message right before we went out, I said, ‘Give everything you got on defense, this cannot be a lukewarm defensive game; You’re going to have to give all you got.’ Even though they made some of those tough threes at the end of shock clocks, we needed to battle. We had a couple breakdowns but you’re never going to play it perfect. We said look, in the Notre Dame game, there were 10 or 12 unforced errors, so let’s try to limit that to maybe just a handful this game because it won’t be perfect. But we scrapped and played hard and it [our defense] held us in there until we got a couple tough baskets and then most of the night, we made them earn their looks.”