COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — When Virginia coach Ryan Odom brought back four of the top six scorers from last season’s 30-win squad, he resolved to let them play.
Thijs De Ridder, Sam Lewis, Chance Mallory and Johann Grunloh are playing heavy minutes so far, and the sixth-ranked Cavaliers relied on their experience to rally from an 11-point halftime deficit and beat Maryland 87-83 on Friday night in their first road test of the season.
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“These guys have been in some battles. There’s no question about it,” Odom said. “The pressure was on us to play better if we were going to have a chance to win and play more like ourselves.”
Grunloh, who platooned last season with departed fellow 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso, played 37 minutes against the Terrapins. Mallory, a sophomore point guard, played 35 minutes.
It’s a different approach from last season, when Odom distributed playing time fairly evenly among a nine-man rotation of transfers and freshmen.
“You think about it, these guys are back. They’ve been in big games, they’ve established themselves, way different than last year,” Odom said. “Last year, everybody was new. You couldn’t tell the difference between the starting lineup and the guys that came in off the bench. Now you can, and that’s not the bench’s fault.”
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Lewis, a 6-foot-7 senior who played his first two seasons at Toledo, scored a career-high 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting for the Cavaliers (5-0), who have won four straight and 10 of 11 against their former Atlantic Coast Conference rivals.
He silenced a red-clad crowd that second-year Terps coach Buzz Williams said was the best he’s seen in College Park. Lewis went 8 of 9 from the field after halftime, and there was exasperation in the Maryland public-address announcer’s voice as he said Lewis’ name over and over, mostly after layups. Lewis missed only two shots inside the arc.
“Whatever they gave me, I took,” Lewis said. “I was taking it to the basket and I was hoping that’s what we needed at the time.”
De Ridder and Grunloh are sophomores but brought plenty of veteran savvy to Charlottesville. Both played professionally in Europe; De Ridder, from Belgium, is 23 years old and Grunloh, from Germany, is 21.
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New to the starting lineup this season is another German former pro, 24-year-old freshman Nolan Adekunle.
De Ridder, the Atlantic Coast Conference preseason player of the year, wasn’t bothered by the double-digit deficit in the second half.
“We all thought that we were still in the game and we were just talking constantly, communicating. I think that we just did a great job in the huddles,” said De Ridder, who finished with 20 points. “Just trying to figure stuff out and just get the hang of it.”
Odom believes his returning core can handle a heavy workload.
“The guys that are the starters, they deserve to be out there right now. It’s just the facts of what it is. And so, we have plenty of time to develop the bench that we have,” the second-year coach said. “And we’re certainly going to do that, but I’m not going to take these guys out constantly when we need them right now, especially in tight games.”
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