Box Score WISE, Va. – UVa-Wise men's basketball stopped a seven-game skid and picked up a 86-63 victory Wednesday night over Berea College (Ky.) inside the David J. Prior Convocation Center. Behind redshirt junior forward Taiwo Badmus' (London, England) third double-double of the season and fourth-straight game of 20 points or more, the Cavaliers (2-7) played as a team to defeat the visiting Mountaineers (6-3) and never trailed.
 
UVa-Wise made a season-high 23 assists on 30 made shots as a team and shot a season-best 53.6 percent from the field in the win. The Cavs also connected on a season-high 13 3-pointers, making 52 percent (13-of-25) of their shots from behind the arc. Defensively, UVa-Wise kept Berea in check as the Cavs held the Mountaineers to a shooting mark of 36.8 percent (21-of-57) for the game, including just 27.6 percent (8-of-29) in the second half.
 
A corner 3-pointer by redshirt sophomore forward Dimitri Sousa (São Paulo, Brazil) gave UVa-Wise an early eight-point 11-3 lead after three and a half minutes of play. The Cavs would outscore Berea 15-10 over the next five minutes of play to mount a 26-13 advantage, the 13-point lead being UVa-Wise's largest of the opening half.
 
The Mountaineers went on a 13-3 run and chiseled down the Cavs' lead to just three after a 3-pointer by Berea's Terique Miller. Sousa responded with another three and UVa-Wise would remain ahead by at least two possessions for the remainder of the half. Berea's Gabe Hinton scored the final four points of the half over the last minute of play as the Cavs took a 45-37 advantage into the locker room.
 
UVa-Wise went 56.7 percent (17-of-30) from the floor in the first half, including going 6-of-12 from deep. Badmus and Sousa paced the Cavs in the opening 20 minutes of play with 15 and 13 points respectively. Berea made 46.4 percent (13-of-28) of its first-half shots and connected on 4-of-11 3-pointers.
 
A 3-pointer by freshman point guard Michal Seals (Lancaster, Pa.) capped an 8-2 UVa-Wise run over the first four minutes of the second half, giving the Cavs a 16-point lead at 55-39. UVa-Wise extended its lead to 20 after Badmus connected on another deep ball with 10:29 remaining. Over the next four minutes of play, the Cavs outscored the Mountaineers 10-2 to take their largest lead of the night at 28 (78-50) with 6:25 to go.
 
Berea went on a 10-2 run and cut the deficit to 20 at 83-63 with 3:27 left but UVa-Wise did not let the Mountaineers score again. Junior guard DeMarcus Edwards (Washington, D.C.) hit a wing 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining to make the 86-63 score final. The Cavs shot just as well in the second half, going 13-of-26 from the floor and shooting 53.8 percent (7-of-13) from downtown.
 
UVa-Wise outrebounded Berea by five and outscored the Mountaineers 34-26 down low. The Cavs scored 28 points off of 18 Berea miscues.
 
Badmus led three different UVa-Wise players in double figures with a game-high 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting and 10 rebounds. Sousa finished with 18 and Seals added 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting to go along with a game-high eight assists. Junior guard Ricardo Hill Jr. (Cincinnati, Ohio) scored eight points and dished out five assists, while Edwards contributed seven points and freshman guard Chance Sheffey (Staunton, Va.) six.
 
UVa-Wise transfer Dyonta Bizzle-Brown scored a team-high 14 points for Berea but fouled out in only 19 minutes of action. Stephen Butts collected nine points for the Mountaineers as Nick McCollum added seven and Corey Wise grabbed a team-high five boards. Hinton finished with six points along with Richard Parker, while Austin Glasgow and Terique Miller each made four assists. The Cavs held Parker, who had been averaging 24.3 points per game, to just one made field goal.
 
The Cavs will hit the road once again and travel back down to Spartanburg, South Carolina, Saturday for another matchup with a NCAA Division I opponent. UVa-Wise takes on USC Upstate at 2 p.m., the game will be broadcast on ESPN3 and WatchESPN.
 
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