ACC expansion has not treated the Virginia basketball team well on the road this season. The Cavaliers made trips to all three newcomers already and all three resulted in losses. SMU and California handed defeat to the Hoos earlier in the schedule, while Stanford became the latest to get the better of UVA as it romped to a 88-65 win Saturday at Maples Pavilion in California.

That extended the Cardinal's success in the series where they own an 8-1 advantage after the lopsided margin. Stanford led for the final 30:03 as it turned away a hot shooting start for the Hoos and then held the visitors at arm's length for the entire second half. Virginia fell to 8-8 overall and 1-4 in ACC play with the loss.

"I think Stanford picked up their pressure defensively and kind of rattled us a little bit there," UVA interim coach Ron Sanchez said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. "We couldn't play with Rohde in the second half - he tried, [but] he's battling some flu-like symptoms. Dropping your primary ballhandler was a little more difficult for us. So that's basically what Stanford did today."

The final stats tell a lot of the story from the loss.

Virginia shot 46.7% (21-45) with 10 made 3-pointers and placed two players in double figures. Isaac McKneely led the way with 22 points, while Jacob Cofie added 11. The Hoos did have 12 turnovers and little success near the rim where they only produced 12 points in the paint. Stanford bettered the visitors in each of those categories. The hosts finished at 50.8% shooting (31-61) with 10 3-pointers too and had three players in double figures. Maxime Raynaud led the way with 24 points, while Oziyah Sellers and Jaylen Blakes added 15 and 10, respectively. the Cardinal scored 40 points in the paint.

Here is a closer look at the blowout loss at Stanford.

Isaac McKneely Bounces Back

UVA guard Isaac McKneely struggled in the first West Coast game on Wednesday night. He finished the Cal contest with 3 points on 1-8 shooting with 1 assist and 1 turnover. He made only 1 of 4 3-pointers.

On Saturday afternoon at Stanford, McKneely bounced back in a big way. He led Virginia with 22 points on 7-14 shooting with 3 assists and only 1 turnover. He made 5 of 11 triples as he logged 36 minutes. The TV announcers pointed out numerous times that McKneely looked more aggressive in this game than earlier in the week.

"Obviously we wanted to get the win, but that didn't happen," McKneely said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. "Coach Sanchez in film sessions yesterday went down the line and told all of our roles, like basically what each of us needed to do for us to win and mine was to hunt shots and be aggressive. That was my main goal out here today was to hunt shots and I think I got like 14 shots so that's a pretty good number for me. Just continuing to be aggressive and being the guy I know I can be."

"We wanted to get Isaac more shots and obviously he did a really good job today," Sanchez said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. "He had 22 points. He hunted his shots. We got him some screens. We ran different kind of offenses to make sure we stayed kind of random. I think Isaac fantastic today. I hope he can stay there and continue to play that way."

The outing at Stanford was McKneely's second biggest performance this season. He had 23 points on 8-9 shooting (6-6 3's) in the win against Villanova on a neutral court in November. He's reached double figures in 12 games. The 3 assists Saturday also continued a consistent output in that category. McKneely has 2 or more assists in 14 of 16 games and 3 or more assists in 11 of 16 games. The junior is shooting 43.9% from 3-point range this season (47-107).

Defense Not Traveling

Virginia has played four true road games this season. The luggage hasn't included any defense.

Looking at these contests in reverse order, the Cardinal had a big day obviously with 88 points. That included a 48-point second half. Stanford shot 50.8% overall (31-61) with 16 layups or dunks. The hosts made 41.7% of their 3's (10-24) and 94.1% of their free throws (16-17). With that many points, it probably isn't surprising that Stanford stuffed the box score in multiple spots with 40 points in the paint, 19 second chance points, and 22 points off of turnovers (some of those can overlap obviously).

Earlier in the week at Cal, the Bears piled up 33 free throw attempts (27-33) with 12 layups or dunks as well. The Hoos allowed only 43.1% shooting overall (22-51), but gave op 47.6% shooting (10-21) in the second half. The hosts scored 40 points in the second half. California 30 points in the paint and 12 second chance points.

In the ACC opener at SMU back on Dec. 7, the Mustangs had 20 free throw attempts (15-20) with 13 layups or dunks. The Cavaliers had their best shooting percentage defense of the four games in this contest at 42.9% (21-49). SMU posted 30 points in the paint and 18 points off of turnovers.

At Florida for the ACC-SEC Challenge game on Dec. 4, the Gators had 21 free throw attempts (15-21) with 16 layups or dunks. The hosts shredded the UVA defense to the tune of 51.7% (31-60) shooting overall, which included a scorching 64.0% (16-25) in the second half. Florida had 39 points in the first half and 48 more in the second half. The Gators tallied 38 points in the paint, 20 points off turnovers, and 10 second chance points.

Over the quartet of games at Florida, SMU, California, and Stanford, UVA has allowed 313 points or an average of 78.25 points per game. In three of four games, the opponent shot 47.6% or better in at least one half. Three of four opponents scored at least 40 points in one half. Three opponents also had at least 20 free throws attempts.

Every team had a player go wild too. For Stanford on Saturday, Maxime Raynaud finished with 24 points on 8-17 shooting. He made 8 of 9 free throws. At Cal, Andrej Stojakovic poured in 23 points on 6-11 shooting from the floor while he made 11 of 13 free throws. SMU guard Kario Oquendo scored 21 points in that matchup on 6-10 shooting overall, which included 4-6 shooting from 3-point range. He also made 5 of 6 free throws. For Florida, Walter Clayton Jr. lit it up for 27 points on 10-19 shooting overall with 5-12 shooting on 3's. He made both of his free throws.

UVA has allowed 80 or more points in three games for the first time since 2008-09 when it happened eight times.

Hot 3-Point Shooting

The Cavaliers did put together a solid shooting day from beyond the arc, which kept the final margin from being even bigger. They made 10 of 21 3-pointers in the game for a 47.6% clip. That's the second best performance this season for both makes and percentage, behind only a 56.0% shooting night (14-25) against Villanova.

Much of Saturday's success came in the early moments as the Hoos hung tough for most of the first half.

In fact, Virginia made its first 5 3-point attempts of the game with all coming in the first 8 minutes of action. McKneely ignited the strong shooting start with a triple at the 16:23 mark. He had another with 15:00 to go too. Ishan Sharma also made a pair of 3's in the early moments with one at 15:48 and one at 12:36. Andrew Rohde accounted for the fifth made 3 with 13:17 on the clock. Sharma's second 3-pointer gave UVA a 19-16 lead.

The McKneely-Sharma duo accounted for most of the outside firepower for the rest of the day too, though Elijah Saunders and Dai Dai Ames each made a long-range shot. McKneely's final 5-11 shooting line mentioned above was supported by a 2-4 shooting night from Sharma. Rohde and Saunders each went 1-2 shooting, while Ames made his only attempt.

Sharma's final stat line was 6 points on those shots with 3 rebounds. 3 assists, and 2 turnovers That came in his first career start.

"He started the game. He was an awesome offensive spark," Sanchez said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. "He hit a couple of threes. He's intelligent. He knew what we were trying to do offensively, defensively. I think he had a really good start for us. I kind of like him in that role and I'm hoping he can continue to grow."

Themes

Some of this season's themes continued to appear in this game. Here is a quick check on some of those storylines.

  • Virginia continues to give up a lot of offensive rebounds. Stanford had 14 even while shooting a high percentage overall.
  • While the Hoos cleaned up their turnovers recently, that issue popped back up a bit in this game with 12 turnovers. That included one at the end of the first half where Rohde tried to thread a tough bounce pass into the paint but it ended up as a steal and a 3-pointer for Stanford that beat the halftime buzzer. That made the intermission score 40-30.
  • UVA has made 7+ 3-pointers in 11 games this season. It has a 6-5 record in those contests.

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