CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Sean Singletary scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Virginia Cavaliers past the visiting Elon Phoenix by a 91-61 margin from John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va. On Saturday afternoon. Despite a 15-point performance from Monty Sanders, which equaled a career-high, the Phoenix dropped to 5-7 and lost its third consecutive game. UVA won its third straight to improve to 9-2 on the year.
Elon claimed an early 7-2 lead, reeling off seven straight points after falling behind 2-0, using an Ola Atoyebi layup and a three and a jumper from Brett James. Virginia responded by scoring the next 10 points of the game to claim a 12-7 advantage on a Mamadi Diane free throw with 14:17 left in the first half.
The Phoenix kept it close for the first 10 minutes of the half before the Cavaliers grabbed its first double digit lead of the contest at 24-14 on a Jeff Jones shot from the charity stripe. Virginia built an 18-point lead with 5:10 to go in the stanza when Jerome Meyinsse threw down a dunk. Elon did not go quietly, however, twice trimming its deficit to 12 before settling for a 13-point halftime difference at 47-34. The 47 points scored by UVA was the most points allowed by Elon in a half all season long.
Back-to-back buckets by Atoyebi and James pulled Elon within 10 at 49-39 early in the second half before the Cavaliers went on a 10-0 run to push their advantage to 59-39 with 15:01 to play. The Phoenix was never able to close within less than 16 points the rest of the afternoon.
The 30-point deficit was the largest of the season for Elon while the 91 points were the most allowed by the Phoenix this year.
Virginia converted 20 Elon turnovers into 27 points while shooting an even 50 percent from the field. The Phoenix shot 40.7 percent for the game.
Three other Elon players finished the game with double figure scoring outputs – Atoyebi and James with 13 apiece and Chris Long with 12 markers. Atoyebi paced the Phoenix with seven rebounds while Montell Watson tallied four assists.
Virginia’s Adrian Joseph finished with 16 points while teammates Meyinsse and Jeff Jones scored 12 and 10 points respectively. Mike Scott led all players with nine rebounds.
Elon will break for the Christmas holiday before finishing its five-game road swing with SoCon games at The Citadel (1-3) and College of Charleston (1-5).
– ELON –
