The Virginia Cavaliers (9-10, 2-6 ACC) snapped a five-game losing streak by defeating Boston College (9-10, 1-7 ACC) at John Paul Jones Arena 74-56 on Tuesday night. Here are our five takeaways from UVA’s second ACC victory of the season:

Coming into Tuesday’s matchup riding a five-game losing streak, Virginia desperately needed a win over Boston College, who sits right next to the ‘Hoos at the bottom of the ACC. For Virginia, they did more than just grind out a victory at JPJ. The Cavaliers looked far better than the Eagles for nearly all forty minutes Tuesday night as they cruised to a near twenty-point win behind an excellent shooting performance. Coming into the game as the worst shooting team in the ACC (42.9 %), Virginia turned in an efficient offensive attack – they finished 52% from the field, and even more impressively, 11/20 from three. Though Virginia’s tournament hopes remain distant, this victory will at minimum serve as a morale boost as the thick of ACC play continues.

The Virginia Cavaliers produced an elite twenty minutes of basketball on their home court in the first half Tuesday night. Ron Sanchez described the fast start as an “injection” of energy that translated to the defensive end as well.

Behind the injection was Isaac McKneely, who scored 12 first-half points and connected on all of his first four three-point attempts. Andrew Rohde and Elijah Saunders both turned in excellent first halves themselves with ten points apiece, with Rohde going into the halftime locker room 4/4 from the field. In tandem, Rohde, Saunders, and McKneely scored 32 of the 41 first-half Virginia points on a ridiculously efficient 12/16 from the field en route to a season-high 19-point halftime lead.

It’s little secret that McKneely is one of the better shooters in the ACC, and certainly the best shooter on this Virginia team – although Andrew Rohde’s improvement from deep deserves credit. McKneely is a career 41% three-point shooter for the ‘Hoos, but connected on just one of his 11 three-point attempts in the last two Virginia losses. The Cavaliers needed McKneely to find himself from beyond the arc to instill any sort of confidence in this ACC-worst offense, and Isaac did just that. He came out and started red hot, connecting on his first four three-point attempts en route to twelve first half points. McKneely finished with 21 points on 7/10 shooting and 6/9 from three-point range.

Virginia has struggled all season in the turnover department, but Tuesday’s game was a step in the right direction with the ‘Hoos finishing with 11 turnovers. Virginia came into JPJ tonight 16th out of the 18 ACC teams with a -1.72 turnover margin, BC is right there at #15 and looked particularly sloppy on offense in the face of a balanced Virginia defensive presence. Boston College finished with 15 turnovers on the night, ensuring the double-digit halftime lead was never threatened during the second half of the Cavalier victory.

The third-year guard from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is certainly not the flashiest, but in a difficult year for the Virginia basketball program, Andrew Rohde has stepped up and taken advantage of the opportunity to receive extended minutes and offensive touches. While McKneely’s stellar night from deep will be the story from this victory, Rohde’s performance was arguably the best in Tuesday’s win; he finished with an efficient 16 points on 5/6 shooting and 2/2 from beyond the arc to go along with a game-high six assists.

Up next, Virginia takes on Notre Dame (8-10, 2-5 ACC) at John Paul Jones Arena this Saturday, January 25th at 6:30pm ET on the ACC Network.

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