CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. Jamie Vanderbeken made five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 24 points Thursday night, leading Iowa State to a 60-47 victory at struggling Virginia.
The Cyclones (12-2) won their sixth in a row, in part because the 6-foot-11 Vanderbeken burned Virginia repeatedly from outside, hitting 5 of 8 3-point shots. It helped that the Cavaliers couldn't make anything. They missed 21 of their first 24 and finished 20 for 62.
Scott Christopherson added 14 points and Melvin Ejim 10 for the Cyclones.
K.T. Harrell led Virginia (8-5) with nine points.
The Cylones led 24-15 at halftime and a basket by Mustapha Farrakhan 17 seconds into the second half made it a seven-point game. But Vanderbeken and Christopherson each hit two 3-pointers in a 14-0 burst and the offensively-challenged Cavaliers never caught up.
The Cavaliers were hoping to have a full complement of players for the first time in six games because of the return of forward Will Sherrill from a broken right leg, but scoring and rebounding leader Mike Scott did not dress because of continuing left ankle problems.
Without perhaps their best passer, the Cavaliers settled for a lot of outside shots, and usually wound up backpedaling to play defense as one after another clanged off the rim.
Vanderbeken, meantime, and Christopherson combined to hit eight 3-pointers.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett at one point got so frustrated by the parade of bad passes and missed opportunities he sent five freshman out on the court together, and they sparked a rally. The Cavaliers pulled within 45-32 with 9:33 to play, but Diante Garrett the Cyclones' scoring leader made his first field goal and Ejim followed with a three-point play with 8:04 to play. That made it 50-34, and the Cavaliers never got closer than 11.
The game was the first for Iowa State outside Iowa, and it hardly showed.
The Cavaliers were also hoping to snap out of a two-game lull in which they needed a tip-in in the final seconds to beat Norfolk State, which had lost six in a row, then got outplayed in a loss to Seattle, a 4-10 team in its second season at the Division I level.
But instead, their sloppy play continued.
The first half was brutal, especially for the Cavaliers. They missed 13 of their first 14 shots, and still had only two points after the second media timeout, with 11:58 to play.
Still, they trailed just 8-2, and Vanderbeken had all the Cyclones' points.
Iowa State eventually stretched its lead to 21-6 with 5:16 to play before Virginia and Assane Sene warmed up. The 7-footer made a three-point play with 4 minutes left, and later scored inside and then on a tip-in at the first-half buzzer, pulling Virginia within 24-15.
Sene's three field goals equaled half his total on 23 tries for the season coming in, and the inside baskets were critical since the Cavaliers were 0-for-13 on 3s. Until Harrell made one with 15:08 to play, Virginia had made only two of its previous 34 3s.
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