UVa leads Wake by 21 at the half

by Whitey Reid on February 8th, 2012

Virginia has looked as sharp offensively as it has all season here tonight at John Paul Jones Arena.

The No. 19 Cavaliers lead Wake Forest at the half, 40-19.

Virginia shot 71 percent in the first half!

Mike Scott leads UVa with 15 points. Joe Harris has nine and Malcolm Brogdon has eight.

Wake Forest entered the contest giving up the most points per game (70.7) in the league—and from the outset it was easy to see why.

Virginia got off to a blazing start.

After Wake opened the game with a Travis McKie jumper, Virginia went on a 10-0 run that was capped by two Harris 3-pointers—the first of which was set up by Jontel Evans penetration and a nice kick-out pass by Akil Mitchell.

After Wake had cut the lead to 12-7 on a basket by Nikita Mescheriakov, Harris hit another 3 to put UVa up 15-7.

Virginia had three turnovers, an airball and a missed 3-pointer on its next five possessions as Wake trimmed the lead to 15-11 before answering with five straight buckets as part of an 11-4 run to take a 24-15 lead.

The surge was highlighted by a 3-pointer and drive to the hoop by Brogdon, two deep jumpers by Scott and an ugly-looking shot by Evans that got a lucky bounce to beat the shot clock.

Virginia closed the half on an exciting 12-0 run that had Wahoo fans going crazy.

The spurt was highlighted by a Mitchell fastbreak dunk and a falling-down lefty scoop shot by Evans that hung on the rim for a brief second before falling as the halftime buzzer sounded.

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