Virginia Cruises Past Holy Cross - Takeaways From A More Comfortable Home Win

The Virginia basketball team wrapped up its Thanksgiving week with another win at the John Paul Jones Arena. UVA never trailed once it took a 4-2 lead and created a double-digit advantage early on the way to a convincing 67-41 victory against Holy Cross. That continued the program's success of the last 15 years when holding opponents under 50 points as the Hoos are 117-2 in that scenario since 2009-2010.

The Cavaliers first took the lead on a Dai Dai Ames layup at the 16:29 mark of the first half. That bucket kickstarted a 20-5 run over the next 7:30, a burst that included four 3-pointers that helped push the lead into double figures for the rest of the night. Andrew Rohde provided the first and last of those 3's, while Elijah Saunders and Isaac McKneely got in on the act as well. By the end of the game, Virginia had made 9 of 25 triples (36.0%) to account for a big part of its offense.

While the contest never really got close again after that surge, there was a brief period in the second half where the Wahoos wobbled a bit. After they took a 20-point lead at 46-26 with 15:06 remaining, the lead dwindled to 14 points over the next 2:26 as Holy Cross scored on three of four possessions. Virginia saw a similar slip in its win against Manhattan on Tuesday when a 16-point lead shrunk to just 7 in 3:10. The Cavaliers never really let the Jaspers put the game in jeopardy in that one, but they also never really put the game away either on the way to a 9-point win.

That prompted a timeout from Virginia interim coach Ron Sanchez on Friday to make sure a similar slow-motion finish didn't materialize. The team pulled away to its largest margin of victory so far this season after that moment.

"The Manhattan game. We had leads and we gave them up," Sanchez said. "The timeout was to reference that game, to reference that experience. We can't continue to repeat behaviors and we have to in the moment coach them. They responded well ... So at that moment, it was a great opportunity to hit the reset button and let's see if we can continue to grow and understand this is the moment that we're in. Let's understand, let's embrace, let's be here, and let's grow and if we can improve from that."

The Hoos now stand at 5-2 on the season. Here are some takeaways from Friday's home W.

Swapping To Ballhandling Starters

Following two rough performances at the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship - a 64-42 defeat to Tennessee and a mostly non-competitive 80-55 setback to St. John's - Virginia returned to Charlottesville and made a change to it's lineup. Motivated in large part by reducing turnovers after 34 in the two bad losses, Sanchez and the coaching staff plugged Andrew Rohde into the starting lineup for TJ Power alongside Isaac McKneely and Dai Dai Ames. That essentially put two point guards or three combo guards depending on how you want to label Rohde, McKneely, and Ames on the floor together.

The pudding proof added up to 14 combined turnovers, 8 against Manhattan and a season-low 6 against Holy Cross, for the Hoos. While that came in what amounts to two tune-up games instead of against two ranked opponents in the Bahamas, it was still a step in the right direction.

"I think where we are right now is probably what we're settling into," Sanchez said. "The one area that we wanted to address after we came back from the Bahamas was taking care of the basketball and I think personnel maybe had something to do with that. So having Rohde, I-Mac, and Dai Dai handle the ball primarily has been really good for us. We went from 18 turnovers to 16 turnovers to 8 turnovers to 6 turnovers tonight. That resonates more with the Virginia way of basketball."

The offense benefitted in the companion category too. Virginia posted 31 combined assists in the two JPJ games vs. 21 in the two Baha Mar games. That included 20 helpers on 24 made baskets against the Crusaders. Rohde and McKneely contributed 3 each, while Ames had 1. Taine Murray and Ishan Sharma came up with 4 each off the bench too.

That ball movement was helped by having the extra ballhandling on the floor much of the time. Rohde said it helps create more paint touches. Rohde and Ames make a lot of the initial drives into the paint so they are becoming the catalysts for those possessions where the offense can move the defense. It doesn't look the same - Rohde angles off defenders and keeps them off balance with his pace, while Ames gets around defenders or splits into seams to expose things more quickly. Either way, those drives can put defenses in rotation and allow the ball to find a player in rhythm or someone cutting near the rim. The big question will be whether the Hoos can keep it up when the competition level rises again.

More On Ames

Ames produced a strong line against HC. He scored 16 points on 6-9 overall shooting, which included a 2-2 night from both 3-point range and the free throw line. He added 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal with no turnovers. That effort matched a career high for the scoring category and marked the first time he finished 100% behind the arc while taking multiple attempts.

Ames now has double-digit outings in 4 of 7 games as a Cavalier. That includes 3 of the last 4 games. He cracked the 10-point barrier eight times in 31 games at Kansas State last season before he transferred over to UVA. While with the Wildcats, Ames attempted 4.9 shots per game. That's up to 6.7 shots per game early this year, an uptick that has come while maintaining his 2.0 assists average. He's averaged 9.1 points so far compared to 5.2 at KSU.

Sanchez said reviewing Ames' games in high school showed a player that could score. That is evident in the stats. He averaged 21.4 points as a senior at Kenwood Academy. He also recorded more than 1,500 career points with a school-record 65-point showing in 2022. The sophomore guard said he's being more assertive hunting shots this season.

"Looking for my shot more, for real - last year at K-State, we had a lot of guys that could put the ball in the hoop so I was playing more of a pass first role," Ames said. "So I've been looking for my shot more at Virginia."

Ames appears to be improving and learning from games at UVA to date. For example, after three games where he had 11 combined turnovers, he bounced back with only 3 turnovers in the next two games. Also, after he fouled out against Manhattan, he had just 1 foul against Holy Cross. A bonus thing is once he entered the starting lineup, he's become another 3-point threat for the Hoos. He's made 9 of 17 3's on the season, an impressive 52.9%. It's a small sample size, of course, but for now it's a big jump from 32.9% with the Wildcats.

Sanchez said the offense the Hoos are using allows someone like Ames to be successful.

"We had three guys in double figures, almost a fourth, and the offense kind of creates that with passing, sharing the ball, cutting, and spacing," Sanchez said. "If we continue to mesh all those things together, I think that he'll continue to play well."

More On Rohde

Another playing catching a lot of attention in recent games is Rohde. He posted 13 points, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 blocked shot Friday with 2 turnovers.

Rohde's reached double digits in the scoring column in 4 of 5 games, including the last 3 games. That means he's already surpassed last season's total for that category when he had 10+ points in only 3 games all season. Currently, he's averaging 10.0 points per game with 3.0 assists.

There's more. Rohde's shooting splits last season checked in at 29.3% overall, 34.7% on 2's, and 25.7% on 3's. This season, he's better across the board. He's at 56.4% overall, 63.2% on 2's, and 50.0% on 3's. Rohde went 5-8 (3-5 on 3's) against HC.

Sanchez complimented Rohde on playing to his strengths and staying focused on improving.

"Andrew has tremendous self-awareness. He does," Sanchez said. "Andrew really understands who he is and he understands his weaknesses and he actually acknowledges some of those things in the moment during the games. He has improved drastically in some areas, but again our standard is still a lot higher than that. I asked him during the game today 'Do you know why I coach you so hard?' And he said 'Because you want me to be a really good player.' As long as he understands that, then we're in a good spot. That's what I appreciate about Andrew, he's coachable, you can get after him, and he's always going to give you all he's got."

Buchanan's Progress

With those types of numbers in the backcourt, it might be easy to overlook Blake Buchanan. He's quietly putting together a little string of games of consistent production for the Hoos, though. With Holy Cross now in the books, take a look at the last four games for Buchanan:

• Tennessee: 6 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 blocked shots, 0 fouls
• St. John's: 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot, 4 fouls
• Manhattan: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 0 blocked shots, 2 fouls
• Holy Cross: 6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot, 3 fouls

"But right now we're asking him to make some plays from the elbow, to make some passes, he's a lot more involved in the offense than he's been in the past so it's a new learning opportunity for him," Sanchez said. "I think today he took one or two shots and maybe a teammate was open, but the only way that you can learn that is by being in that position."

The Next Two

Virginia did what it needed to do this week by winning two home games as a heavy favorite. Neither Manhattan nor Holy Cross could defend or attack the Hoos in the way Tennessee and St. John's did a week earlier, though. So the big question now is whether UVA can take the lessons and confidence from two expected victories to be competitive in two road tests coming up this week.

The Hoos play at No. 18 Florida on Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. in the ACC-SEC Challenge. After that, they'll travel to SMU for the ACC opener on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 2:15 p.m. The Cavaliers think they learned a lot from the two losses and applied some things to the two wins this week that will help moving forward.

"I think those two games at the Bahamas helped us a lot. I think we learned a lot as a group," Rohde said. "This past week has been really tough in practice, just getting after it. I think we kind of know what to expect more out of these really good teams that we're playing."

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