No. 6 Virginia visits Maryland with a school-record offense
The undefeated Cavaliers play their first true road game Friday night at the Xfinity Center.
UVANo. 6 Virginia plays at Maryland on Friday night in a Virginia Maryland basketball game that is the Cavaliers' first true road test. Tip-off is 8 p.m. at the Xfinity Center in College Park, Md. The game streams on Peacock. Read more: Virginia Maryland basketball: No. 6 Cavaliers on the road
Virginia is 4-0. Meanwhile, Maryland is 1-1 after an 86-74 loss at Georgetown, according to The Cavalier Daily. The Cavaliers rose to No. 6 in the AP poll, their highest ranking since February 2023, per VirginiaSports.com.
Related: Georgia reclaims No. 1 spot in latest CFP rankings
Virginia's numbers
Virginia is averaging a school-record 93 points per game. It has made 10 or more steals in every game, for 13.3 a night. The Cavaliers also beat then-No. 12 Arkansas 91-72 on Sunday in Washington, per KY3.
Thijs De Ridder leads at 17.8 points and 8.3 rebounds. Together with Johann Grünloh, he anchors the front line, The Cavalier Daily said. Sam Lewis averages 15.0 points, and Chance Mallory averages 14.8. Grünloh adds 13.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks. So the scoring is spread out.
But the latest win was the loudest. Virginia beat Bucknell 95-61 on Tuesday. It had 30 assists, and Mallory scored 16 points with six assists. So the bench got work, too. VirginiaSports.com reported that all 17 players in uniform played.
Related: Nebraska clinches share of Big Ten title
What Maryland offers
Maryland is coming off its first loss. It fell at Georgetown, where Pharrel Payne scored 28 points with eight rebounds, SI's Maryland site reported. Buzz Williams is in his second year as Maryland's coach. SI's Maryland site said Payne kept up his strong play from limited appearances last season.
Virginia coach Ryan Odom urged caution about that loss. He also said, "Maryland's a good basketball team." "I wouldn't read too much into that last game that they had," Odom told The Cavalier Daily.
A renewed series
The teams have met 185 times since 1913. Maryland leads the series 108-77. Last December's game was the first meeting since 2018. But Virginia has won nine of the last 10 meetings, including an 80-72 win in Charlottesville on Dec. 20, 2025.
However, College Park has been hard on Virginia. The Cavaliers are 26-61 there, per VirginiaSports.com.
Then Virginia returns home to host Old Dominion on Tuesday, per the ESPN schedule.
This story was written by Disruptor Sports journalists working with Claude, a generative AI model made by Anthropic. How our newsroom works.
Comments