Isaac McKneely scored a career-high 22 points, leading Virginia’s long-range assault in an 84-62 victory over Syracuse in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.
Reece Beekman provided 13 points and eight assists while Andrew Rohde added 10 points and four assists as the Cavaliers (7-1, 1-0) improved to 15-0 in conference openers under coach Tony Bennett.
In a game in which neither team led by more than five points for the first 15 minutes, McKneely lifted Virginia late in the first half on its way to a 37-24 advantage at intermission.
After missing their first three attempts from 3-point range, the Cavaliers made 12 of their next 16 shots from deep.
McKneely, who had notched his career high by halftime with 16 points, finished 6 of 8 on his 3-point tries. Taine Murray and Rohde each hit two treys.
JJ Starling scored 16 points and Maliq Brown added 10 points and five rebounds to lead Syracuse (5-3, 0-1).
Four days after recording his career high of 33 points in leading Syracuse to a romp over LSU, Justin Mintz had just five on 2 of 8 shooting.
The Orange made 40.7 percent of their shots from the floor (22 of 54) and 25 percent from 3-point range (5 of 20). The Cavaliers answered with 54.5 percent shooting overall and 57.1 percent from beyond the arc (12 of 21).
Syracuse scored the first five points of the game before Virginia answered with the next seven. It then settled into a possession-by-possession standoff until the Cavaliers went on an 18-4 run fueled by eight points from McKneely.
When his 28-foot rainbow swished through the hoop and capped the run with 30 seconds left in the half, it gave Virginia a 37-22 lead.
The Cavaliers kept pouring it on early in the second half. During a 13-0 spree, McKneely made two treys and Rohde added another. When Leon Bond III closed the run with a dunk, Virginia had a 62-35 lead with 11:51 left.
A 3-pointer by Murray gave Virginia its biggest lead, 75-42, with 7:33 to go.
During one stretch that bridged the halves, the Cavaliers made 19 of 24 shots as they won for the 10th time in its last 11 meetings with the Orange.
–Field Level Media
