Stony Brook @ Virginia preview

No. 7 Virginia looked much more like its dominant self on the defensive end in a big conference win its last time out. It will try to build off that victory and put a long break to good use when it hosts Stony Brook of the America East on Wednesday.

After a surprising 69-40 loss to Purdue on Dec. 4 in which the top defensive team in the country was no issue for the Boilermakers, the Cavaliers bounced back in impressive fashion with a 56-47 victory over rival North Carolina four days later, improving to 7-0 in games in which they held an opponent under 50 points. "That's who we are right now," coach Tony Bennett told reporters. "We have to fight and scrap and play with guts. Sometimes we have, sometimes we haven't." Senior swingman Braxton Key, who ranks second on Virginia in scoring (10.3) and first in rebounding (8.3), will miss his fourth straight game with a wrist injury as the Seawolves come to town. After a 7-1 stretch, Stony Brook has dropped back-to-back road games by single digits to Hostra and Providence.

TV: 6:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network

ABOUT STONY BROOK (7-5): Junior guard Elijah Olaniyi scored 25 points in the loss at Providence, where the Seawolves -- who have played a formidable non-conference schedule -- had 54 second-half points to make a bid for the upset. "We wanted to be challenged, because the bottom line is, for us to win our league, Vermont can play at the level of a lot of the high-major teams we've played nonconference," coach Geno Ford told reporters after the loss. "They're a heavy favorite to win our league. We've got to find a way to beat them. So we wanted to put ourselves in as many of these situations as we could where we would have to battle and be challenged." Makale Foreman averages 14.2 points and fellow junior guard Andrew Garcia is at 12.6 -- 13.8 on 52.6 percent shooting over his last four games.

ABOUT VIRGINIA (8-1): Senior forward Mamadi Diakite averages a team-high 13.2 points for the Cavaliers, who are shooting 39.4 percent from the floor and 25 percent from 3-point range -- both near the bottom of the national rankings. "We show flashes of good and flashes of unsoundness," Bennett told reporters of the offensive issues. "So you just keep putting your head down, and you show up every day and you work, win or lose, and try to move the needle for toughness and soundness." Freshman center Francisco Caffaro provided a nice boost off the bench against the Tar Heels with 10 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes after producing a total of three points and two boards through his first four games.

TIP-INS

1. Cavaliers G Kihei Clark, who leads the team in assists (5.0), is 2-of-14 from the floor over the last two games.

2. Seawolves C Jeff Otchere has nine blocked shots over his last two contests.

3. This marks the first meeting between the programs.

PREDICTION: Virginia 60, Stony Brook 45