Mamadi Diakite had 15 points and Jay Huff added 13 on Wednesday evening, and the #7 Virginia Cavaliers held the Maine Black Bears to just 19% shooting en route to a 46-26 men’s basketball non-conference win at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Virginia (7-0) never trailed getting the first seven points from the 7 foot 1 Huff who was making his first start of the season due a Cavaliers injury. Despite falling down nine early the Black Bears stayed right in it and got a Sergio El Darwich three pointer to get within five with 6:03 left in the first half. El Darwich though later would leave and didn’t return when he twisted his right ankle. The hosts build the lead to 14 on six straight points from Diakite, but Vilgot Larsson converted a four point play just before the break to make it a 10 point game.
Nedeljko Prijovic hit a three-pointer early in the second half to cut it to eight for Maine (2-4), but that is as close as the Black Bears got as they only scored seven points the remaining 16:51 of play.
Larsson had nine points for Maine to lead the way, while Andrew Fleming added seven points and six rebounds. The Bears shot just 8-43 from the floor and committed 21 turnovers in the loss, but did outrebound Virginia 32-27. Diakite added seven rebounds and Huff added five to their game high point totals for the defending national champions. Maine continues their tough stretch of non-conference games when they head to Storrs, Connecticut to battle the UConn Huskies on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
