McKneely and Dunn Shine in Virginia's Blowout Win Over Monmouth
There were a lot of things to like about UVA's blowout win over Monmouth, but chief among them has to be the coming out parties of not one, but two freshmen. Both Isaac McKneely and Ryan Dunn delivered standout performances as part of a completely dominant 89-42 victory for Virginia against Monmouth on Friday night at John Paul Jones Arena.
Eventually, the game turned into one of Virginia's most staggering wins in the last couple of years. But for the first ten minutes, the visiting Hawks went stride for stride with the Cavaliers. Myles Foster powered Monmouth to an early 8-5 lead as UVA came out of the gates a little sluggish.
The one thing that was working for Virginia right away was perimeter shooting, as the Cavaliers got threes from Isaac McKneely, Armaan Franklin, and Kihei Clark to take the lead. A hook shot from Myles Foster made it 19-17 UVA at the midway point of the first half, and it seemed this Friday night matchup might be a back-and-forth affair for the duration.
Instead, Virginia entirely took over the game from that point on. It started with UVA's defensive unit, which held Monmouth without a field goal for the final ten minutes of the first half. With the Hawks scoring just four points on free throws for the rest of the half, the Cavaliers took full advantage, using a 23-4 run to open up a 42-21 halftime lead.
Virginia hit seven three-pointers on 46.7% shooting in the first half, including two each from Kihei Clark and Isaac McKneely. Eight different Cavaliers scored in the first half, including four with at least five points.
The party continued in the second half, with UVA taking advantage of another long scoring drought by Monmouth to build up its lead to 40 points at 67-27 as this game became a bloodbath by the midway point of the second half.
In the end, Virginia cruised to an 89-42 win and had a lineup of mostly walk-ons and freshmen in the game for the final several minutes. The 89-42 final score was UVA's largest margin of victory since defeating Coppin State 97-40 in the 2018-2019 season. The Cavaliers improved to 107-2 when holding their opponent to less than 50 points in the Tony Bennett era and Virginia is also now 37-1 when scoring at least 80 points under Tony Bennett. The 89 points were the most UVA has scored since the season-opener in 2020-2021.
All of these notes help to put in perspective how good Virginia was on both ends of the floor against Monmouth, but they do not even begin to describe the vast improvements this team has made from last season, especially offensively. It's still very early and this progress has admittedly come against less-than-elite competition, but there is significant evidence just in the way Virginia runs its offense with the spacing, ball movement, and shooting that shows that this year's UVA offense is already miles ahead of the best version of last year's offense.
"I think we're deeper this year and we've shown that we shoot it better," said UVA head coach Tony Bennett after the game. "Does that guarantee you're going to be banging shots and [have a high] shooting percentage? No, but it opens the floor and the threats there."
There are many individual performances that are deserving of praise - including very solid and well-rounded performances from UVA's normal starting five. But we're going to focus on three newcomers who shined in the win.
After making only one of his four three-point attempts in his collegiate debut on Monday, Isaac McKneely started to show what he is truly capable of as a lights-out sharpshooter on Friday night. The West Virginia native led the Cavaliers in scoring with 15 points, making five of his eight field goal attempts, including 4/6 from downtown. He displayed a lightning-fast release on catch-and-shoot threes, especially from the corner, but also worked well with the ball in his hands, helping to break down the Monmouth defense and create open shots for his teammates.
A couple of McKneely's threes came off of brilliant passes from Ben Vander Plas, who has shown an underrated level of vision and passing ability through the first two games, firing difficult passes through traffic from inside the paint to open shooters on the outside. The Ohio transfer tallied three assists on Friday to go along with three rebounds and 10 points, including 2/3 three-pointers.
“He [Ben Vander Plas] has got very good vision and his ability to pass - he just sees things that makes the game easier for other guys," Bennett said. "He can stretch it from three, but he really finds things, strong hands, his experience shows. To have a guy in that spot is really important."
Vander Plas and McKneely helped bury the Hawks earlier in the contest, but by the time the buzzer sounded, Ryan Dunn had become the story of the game. Before tipoff on Friday, it was reported that Isaac Traudt would be joining fellow freshman Leon Bond III in redshirting this season. And by the end of Friday's game, Ryan Dunn not only showed why Tony Bennett and the UVA coaching staff thought he was too valuable to consider leaving him on the bench, but he also proved that he is well-deserving of meaningful minutes as the Cavaliers continue on through the season.
After not playing in the season-opener on Monday, Dunn played 27 minutes against Monmouth and he was all over the place for the Cavaliers, scoring 13 points on 5/6 shooting, including one three-pointer, and recording six rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and two steals. On one of those steals, Dunn jumped a passing lane and was seemingly down the floor in the blink of an eye, finishing with a thunderous one-hand jam. On another play, Dunn covered some serious ground and blocked a Monmouth three-point attempt. We knew he was athletic, but it's his feel for the game and his ability to play under control and be in the right spots at the right times that really stood out as Ryan Dunn delivered one of the strongest freshmen debuts of the Tony Bennett era.
"I was really glad to see Ryan [Dunn] get out there," Bennett said. "You saw his length and athleticism which was good and defensively he made some plays, so I was happy he got some time."
Of course, there's a long ways to go and the Cavaliers will have prove they can score and defend at this level against top competition. But those opportunities are coming quickly. Virginia faces a decent Northern Iowa team on Monday at 8pm at JPJ and then the Cavaliers will be off to Las Vegas to play in the Continental Tire Main Event along with Baylor, UCLA, and Illinois next weekend.
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