UMES' play in the first half against No. 23 Virginia gave Hawks men's basketball coach Frankie Allen hope that his team might give the Cavaliers a game. But it vanished quickly in the second half.

Mike Scott scored 10 of his 17 points during a 12-point spurt early in the second half, and host Virginia overcame a sluggish start to beat the Hawks, 69-42, on Tuesday night.

“We did feel good about that,” Allen said of the halftime deficit, which UMES cut to 30-23 on Hillary Haley's 3-pointer to start the second half. “But they have the ability to just turn it up a notch in the second half. They went to their second, third gear.”

Scott, who had all his points in 15 minutes, had a lot to do with it. So did Virginia's defense, which held the Hawks to 27.8 percent shooting.

“I wasn't sure we were going to score 40 points,” said Allen, who played his high school ball in Charlottesville and his college ball at Roanoke, about two hours away. “They just defend you. That's what they hang their hat on.”

Haley led the Hawks with 11 points, and Ronald Spencer had nine.

Darion Atkins added 13 points and Joe Harris had 10 for Virginia, which is off to an 11-1 start for the first time since the 2000-01 season. The Cavaliers were playing their first game since sophomore KT Harrell and redshirt freshman James Johnson said they were transferring.

It hardly mattered against the Hawks (3-10).

After Haley's 3-pointer, Scott hit a jumper and a layup off a feed from Sammy Zeglinski. After Jontel Evans' layup, Scott had a breakaway dunk, another basket and a layup, making it 42-23.

The big attraction the rest of the game was the play of freshman Paul Jesperson, who finished with five points. Virginia planned to redshirt the sharpshooter from Merrill, Wis., but no longer has that luxury after losing Harrell and Johnson. Virginia scored the first nine points, then had an 11-5 run late in the first half.