McKneely Sparks Virginia to Dominant 84-62 Victory Over Syracuse

Isaac McKneely knocked down six threes and scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Cavaliers to a blowout win over the Orange to open ACC play

Coming into Saturday's game, Isaac McKneely's previous career-high was 15 points. He surpassed that mark in the first half alone. 

Behind a career-high 22 points and six three-pointers from Isaac McKneely, Virginia (7-1) delivered its finest performance of the season to date and dominated Syracuse (5-3) 84-62 in the ACC opener on Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena. 

The first five minutes of the game proved to be the opposite of how the rest of the contest would go. The Cavaliers missed each of their first three attempts from three, all of which were wide open, while the Orange knocked down three of their first five threes. 

Eventually, though, the shots started to fall for Virginia and they didn't stop falling the rest of the way. Isaac McKneely provided the necessary spark for the Cavaliers, triggering a 7-0 run with a step-back three-pointer with five minutes to go in the half. UVA fully seized momentum in the last couple of minutes, as McKneely hit a turnaround jumper, then dished to Leon Bond III for a dunk, and then swished a wide-open three from the top of the key and held the pose as the sold-out crowd at JPJ erupted. McKneely set a new career-high in points in the first half alone with 16 points and four three-pointers. 

"You know, once you see that first one go down, it's like you got a little bit of a good feeling, and then the second one, third one," McKneely said after the game. "So I just kept letting them fly and they were falling, so credit to my teammates for finding me when I was open, too."

Virginia, which shot 56.5% from the floor in the first half, was almost as good defensively, holding Syracuse to 36.4% shooting and zero fastbreak points. Judah Mintz, an ACC All-Freshman Team selection a season ago, came into the game scoring better than 20 points per game, but against Reece Beekman and UVA's stout team defense, he managed just five points, all of which came in the first half. 

Syracuse managed to get into a rhythm offensively early in the second half, with JJ Starling starting to have some success driving on McKneely. Starling scored 13 of his 16 points after halftime and kept the Orange in the game for the first few minutes of the second half. Unfortunately for Syracuse, there was no offensive drop-off for Virginia, which went shot for shot and eventually overwhelmed the Orange. McKneely knocked down two more threes and finished with 22 points on 8/11 shooting and 6/8 from beyond the arc. 

In a desperate attempt to disrupt UVA's offensive flow, Syracuse switched to a zone defense, which Virginia immediately broke down, leading to even more open looks. Taine Murray got into the action and made back-to-back corner threes to put the Cavaliers up by 33, 75-42, with seven and a half minutes to go. 

The game was essentially over after that, but Syracuse kept most of its starters in the game and implemented a full-court press against UVA's bench unit over the final several minutes. That allowed the Orange to cut into the deficit a bit, but Virginia still came away with a comfortable and convincing 22-point win. 

Saturday was surely Virginia's finest all-around performance of the season, as the Cavaliers were stout defensively and shot the ball extremely well from all areas of the floor. 

Starting with the defense, UVA held Syracuse to 25% from beyond the arc and forced 14 turnovers. It's also notable that the Cavaliers, who had struggled rebounding the ball this season, won the rebounding battle 33-27 and allowed only 10 offensive boards and just seven second-chance points. 

Offensively, Virginia shot 12/21 (57.1%) from beyond the arc and 30/55 (54.5%) from the floor. UVA had 21 assists to 10 turnovers, with many of those turnovers coming in garbage time. McKneely led the way with 22 points, but Reece Beekman had a great game as well on both ends of the floor, posting 13 points on 5/7 shooting with eight assists. Andrew Rohde was also in double figures with 10 points, four assists, and three rebounds. 10 different Cavaliers scored in the game. 

After playing a stretch of four-consecutive games against major conference opponents, Virginia will host North Carolina Central on Tuesday at 7pm at John Paul Jones Arena. 

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