With its second- and third-leading scorers sidelined with injuries, Virginia was still better than last-place Miami.

The Cavaliers got a career-high 20 points from veteran guard Taine Murray while fellow guard Isaac McKneely had a team-best 26 and forward Blake Buchanan added 16 points and nine rebounds in an 82-71 win at Miami on Wednesday evening in Coral Gables.

It was the first true road victory of the season for UVa (10-11, 3-7 ACC) and interim coach Ron Sanchez, who inserted Murray and Buchanan into the starting lineup with both guard Andrew Rohde and forward Elijah Saunders out against the lowly Hurricanes (4-17, 0-10 ACC). Sanchez took over in October after former Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett retired.

Former Miami coach Jim Larrañaga stepped away from his post in December, and the Hurricanes have dropped nine straight since then under interim coach Bill Courtney.

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Here are three takeaways from the Cavaliers’ win.

Virginia's Taine Murray goes for a layup in the University of Virginia vs. Campbell men's basketball game at JPJ on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024.

Murray picked up the slack

Entering Wednesday, Saunders’ 11.8 points per game and Rohde’s 8.7 points per contest were second and third for the Cavaliers, respectively. Rohde’s 68 assists topped the team, so the Hoos needed at least one player to step in and replace the production Saunders and Rohde would’ve accounted for.

Murray, the lone senior on the roster, did exactly that.

His 20 points were a career-high and throughout the second half, he kept making shots and setting up others to help UVa maintain a lead.

Murray’s 3 with 11:28 remaining extended the lead to 53-46 after Miami cut its deficit to four points. Murray had an aggressive, driving layup to grow UVa’s lead to 57-50 with 9:25 to go immediately after the Hurricanes trimmed the margin to five points.

The 6-foot-5, 208-pounder was at his best particularly in the second half. His previous high in points was 14, which he had this past December against Memphis and in 2021 against Iowa.

He tallied a career-best seven assists, including twice on McKneely 3s that allowed UVa to stay ahead by seven over the final eight minutes.

Dominant run propelled Hoos

UVa used a 20-5 run that lasted more than six minutes through the 5:30 mark of the first half to gain a double-digit advantage before halftime.

The Cavaliers got easy buckets during the stretch, too.

Buchanan scored on a put-back layup and forward Jacob Cofie scored on a layup to push the lead to 29-19.

Those high-percentage shots were set up by a barrage of 3s.

McKneely made three 3s and guard Dai Dai Ames had one, too, all within a three-minute span as UVa began separating from the Hurricanes.

The Hoos stretched their edge even further ahead of the break. The duo of Murray and Buchanan combined for 9 points in the final four minutes of the half. Buchanan had a layup and a dunk and Murray had a layup and a 3-pointer. Buchanan’s dunk had UVa up 40-25.

UVa gets needed bounce-back win

After this past Saturday’s disappointing 74-59 home loss to Notre Dame, the outlook for the rest of the season for the Cavaliers was bleak.

It was fair to ponder whether or not they’d be able to string together enough wins to get to the ACC tournament.

That is still in question.

But a loss to Miami would’ve been devastating toward that goal, so the Hoos’ victory on Wednesday at the very least serves as a needed bounce-back triumph after the setback to the Irish and keeps UVa in position to battle over the last half of the conference schedule to make the 15-team league tournament.