De Ridder leads a cascade of Cavaliers in scoring with 20 points in win over North Carolina Central

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Thijs De Ridder scored 20 points and Malik Thomas scored 12 points and Virgina ran away and hid early and went on to beat North Carolina Central 81-62.

Sam Lewis and reserve Ugonna Onyenso each scored 10 and Johan Grunloh tallied 11 rebounds for the Cavaliers who owned a 48-34 rebounding advantage.

Virginia had 10 players entering the scoring column with reserves Chance Mallory and Jacari just missing double digits scoring nine points apiece.

Gage Latimore scored 25 points and Khouri Carvey scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for NCCU (0-2).

Virginia (2-0) built a 15-5 lead in the first five minutes and never trailed. The Cavaliers reached their first 20-plus point lead when Onyenso rebounded his own miss for a put back and made it 26-5 with 11:14 before halftime.

Virginia made it unscathed to the break up 42-25. Midway through the second half, De Ridder made a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 65-34 with 10:39 to go.

Virginia is 3-0 all-time against NCCU. Virginia beat the Eagles 77-47 in the 2023-24 season and 73-61 in its season opener of the 2022-23 season.

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