Mike Scott scored 10 of his 17 points during a 12-point spurt early in the second half and No. 23 Virginia overcame a sluggish start and beat Maryland-Eastern Shore 69-42 on Tuesday night.
Darion Atkins added 13 points and Joe Harris 10 points for Virginia, off to an 11-1 start for the first time since the 2000-01 season. The Cavaliers were playing their first game since KT Harrell and redshirt freshman James Johnson announced on consecutive days last week they were transferring.
It hardly mattered against the Hawks (3-10), who trailed 30-20 at halftime and saw it quickly get out of hand in the second half.
Hillary Haley led the Hawks with 11 points.
Haley started the second half with a 3-pointer for UMES, but Scott hit a 12-foot jumper and then a layup off a feed from Sammy Zeglinski. After Jontel Evans' driving layup, Scott had a breakaway dunk, another basket and a layup after some highlight reel passing.
On the play, Zeglinski fed Joe Harris, who made a touch pass to Scott for the easy lay-in, making it 42-23
The big attraction the rest of the game was the play of freshman Paul Jesperson. Virginia planned to redshirt the sharpshooter from Merrill, Wis., but no longer has that luxury after losing Harrell, who had started five games, and Johnson, in the two days before Christmas.
Jesperson was cheered every time he reported to the scorer's table, and drew one of the loudest roars of the night with 10 minutes left when he made a 3-pointer from the right corner off an inbounds pass. Moments later, he was called for charging on a driving layup try.
He finished with five points, and walk-on guard Doug Browman also drew a huge roar when he made a 3-pointer late.
Virginia came out fast, scoring the first nine points. The Cavaliers also had an 11-5 run late in the first half to open the 30-20 lead.
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