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Virginia cruises against former ACC rival Maryland

Dec 4, 2014 - 7:37 AM College Park, MD (SportsNetwork.com) - It's nights like this that Maryland is probably glad it left the ACC.

Malcolm Brogdon scored 18 points and seventh-ranked Virginia never trailed in handing the No. 21 Terrapins a 76-65 loss in Maryland's first game of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge as a member of the opposite side.

The Cavaliers completely dictated this meeting with their longtime ACC cohorts, which ended a 61-year association with the league to join the Big Ten at the conclusion of last season. Virginia shot 53.1 percent from the field, outrebounded the Terps by a 34-22 margin and led many as many as 18 points to deal newly ranked Maryland its first defeat of the season.

Virginia (8-0) did lose leading scorer Justin Anderson to an apparent ankle injury with 9:24 left, the lone negative on an otherwise celebratory night for the Cavs.

Anderson tallied 16 points and six rebounds before exiting, with Mike Tobey and Anthony Gill adding 14 and 11 points, respectively, to the victory.

Maryland (7-1) struggled offensively all throughout, shooting just 40 percent and never sustaining any level of comfort against the Cavaliers' tight defense. Star freshman Melo Trimble finished with 16 points, but most of that total came from the free throw line.

"I thought Virginia was terrific from the beginning to the end," said Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon. "I thought their defense showed what Virginia is about and I thought their execution was better."

The Cavaliers had it working on both ends in building a lead as large as 12 points in the first half. Virginia shot better than 55 percent over the opening 20 minutes -- with Anderson and Brogdon combining to go 8-of-12 from the floor -- while holding Maryland to a 7-of-19 field goal rate.

Virginia sped out to a 14-4 lead behind its pesky defense, which forced the Terps to miss seven of their first nine shots and caused three early turnovers.

"I really thought we were locked in those first six or seven minutes," Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said about the team's start on defense. "You could see that there weren't many gaps."

It was a 20-10 Cavaliers' advantage just over 13 minutes in following back-to-back jumpers from Gill and Darion Atkins.

Maryland cut the margin down to five later in the half, but Anderson netted six points during an 11-4 spurt that had the Cavs up 35-23 with 1:40 to go in the stanza. UVa went into the break owning a 37-29 edge.

The Cavaliers maintained a double-digit cushion for most of the second half by continuing to keep Maryland out of sync. Virginia began to pull away over the final 10 minutes, with a 7-0 flurry capped by Gill's transition layup with 7:48 remaining extending the lead to 61-44.

Game Notes

The schools were facing one another in a non-conference setting for the first time since Jan. 5, 1953. Both became charter members of the ACC the following season ... Virginia's 8-0 start is the program's first since 2003-04 ... The Cavaliers outscored the Terps 36-20 in the paint ... Trimble finished 12-of-14 from the foul line but went just 2-of-9 from the field ... Jake Layman ended with 14 points for the Terrapins ... Maryland had a 10-5 record in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge when on the ACC side ... The Terps played their first game as a ranked team since the 2009-10 season.