Wahoo Wire

The Virginia men’s basketball team bounced back from an ugly loss Monday at South Florida with consecutive victories in Charlottesville this week. The Cavaliers knocked off Rider, 79-46 on Thursday, and then defeated Oral Roberts, 76-55 on Saturday afternoon. Both games at John Paul Jones Arena were the preliminary matchups of the 2009 Cancun Challenge.

Tony Bennett’s squad will now make the trip to Mexico for a contest with Stanford on Tuesday night, followed by a matchup with either Kentucky or Cleveland State on Wednesday.

Although wins over Rider and Oral Roberts may seem insignificant, they mark a large improvement from a horrible performance against Big-East bottom feeder South Florida in Tampa. Additionally, Rider and ORU both came into JPJ riding two game winning streaks–including one win each against a high profile opponent. Rider defeated then-18th ranked Mississippi State to begin the year, and Oral Roberts added a win over Stanford to its resume earlier in the week.

The Cavaliers did not struggle with either, however, cruising to victories on both occasions. Mike Scott put up 17 and 15 points to go along with 9 and 10 rebounds in the two wins respectively, leading the team in both categories. The ‘Hoos used a balanced attack in each win, with four players reaching double-figures on both Thursday and Saturday.

Some new faces were also welcomed to the floor at the arena this week. 7-foot center Assane Sene returned for the Oral Roberts game after a 3-game suspension, and was clearly a presence with 8 points and 7 boards in 13 minutes. Additionally, sparingly used Will Sherrill totaled 27 minutes over the two contests, defending well and grabbing nine rebounds for the defensive-minded Bennett.

All in all, Virginia fans should be much more encouraged following two dominating performances against two semi-relevant mid major opponents.  We should find out much more about what kind of team Bennett has next week in Mexico.