Virginia Basketball Beats Orange1 Basket 71-41 in Florence

The Cavaliers move to 2-0 on their exhibition tour in Italy

Author:
Matt Newton
Updated:
Aug 15, 2022 4:28 PM EDT
Original:
Aug 15, 2022

In this story:

Armaan Franklin during the Virginia men's basketball exhibition tour in Italy. — The Hoos remain unbeaten through the first two games of their exhibition tour in Italy.
Virginia Athletics

After delivering a dominant performance on Saturday in a 52-point beatdown of Stella Azzurra in Rome to open the exhibition tour in Italy, the Virginia men's basketball team faced some better competition on Monday in Florence. The Cavaliers took on an Orange1 Basket club that hung around with Arkansas, losing 75-54 to the Razorbacks over the weekend. UVA took care of business again and improved to 2-0 in Italy with a 71-41 victory over Orange 1Basket.

Tony Bennett gave control of the team to associate head coach Jason Williford, who managed head coaching duties during the game. Reece Beekman, Isaac McKneely, and Ben Vander Plas were UVA's three inactive players for this game, sitting out as part of Virginia's rotation system for the exhibition tour.

UVA went with a starting five of Kihei Clark, Taine Murray, Armaan Franklin, Jayden Gardner, and Francisco Caffaro.

Orange1 Basket played the Hoos tough early on, as Virginia held a slim 15-11 advantage at the end of the first quarter. In the second period, however, the Cavaliers stepped up their game at both ends of the floor, holding Orange1 Basket to just five points in the quarter and building a sizable 35-16 lead at halftime.

Isaac Traudt was superb off the bench, dropping 12 points, four rebounds, and two assists in the first half alone. The first-year forward would finish with a fantastic statline of 19 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Here's Traudt working hard on the glass for a putback:

Virginia led 58-29 at the end of the third quarter and cruised to a 71-41 victory to remain unbeaten in Italy.

UPDATE: Stats from the game have been released:
Isaac Traudt: 19 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
Kadin Shedrick: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals
Francisco Caffaro: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals
Armaan Franklin: 7 points, 2 assists
Jayden Gardner: 7 points
Taine Murray: 6 points, 4 assists
Kihei Clark: 5 points, 5 assists, 4 steals
Leon Bond III: 2 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals
Ryan Dunn: 2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals

Hear from Jason Williford, Isaac Traudt, and Kadin Shedrick following Monday's game:

The Cavaliers will wrap up the exhibition tour in Italy with a pair of games in Rapallo on August 18th and 19th. UVA will face KK Mega Mozzart, also known as Mega Basket, a professional basketball club based out of Belgrade, Serbia. The club won the 2016 Serbian Cup and has produced a few notable NBA players such as Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Boban Marjanović, and Nikola Jokić, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the NBA for the second-consecutive season last spring.

Stay tuned to CavaliersNow for more coverage of the Virginia men's basketball team's exhibition tour in Italy.

Follow CavaliersNow on Twitter
Follow CavaliersNow on Facebook

See more Virginia men's basketball news and content: Virginia Men's Basketball on Sports Illustrated

See more Virginia sports news and content: Virginia Cavaliers on Sports Illustrated