Kihei Clark helps No. 3 Virginia squeak past James Madison

Kihei Clark tied a season high with 18 points and No. 3 Virginia held off James Madison for a 55-50 victory on Tuesday night in Charlottesville, Va.

Jayden Gardner added 14 points for the Cavaliers (8-0), who are off to their best start since the 2018-19 squad won its first 16 games. Their poor free-throw shooting (12 of 24) kept the contest close.

Takal Molson led the visiting Dukes (7-3) with 20 points, 18 of them in the second half, and Vado Morse added 11.

James Madison entered the game ranked No. 1 in the country in scoring with 93.3 points per game while shooting 52.7 percent from the field and 42.2 percent from behind the arc.

The Dukes struggled against a Virginia defense that has only allowed one opponent to reach 70 points this season. JMU shot 27.3 percent overall and 30.4 percent (7 of 23) from 3-point distance.

Clark scored 11 of Virginia's first 13 points in the second half and the Cavaliers led 40-34.

After Molson's triple tied it at 42-42 with 7:51 left, Gardner scored five straight points to put Virginia up 47-42.

The lead grew to 51-43 on Clark's layup with 4:08 remaining.

Back-to-back layups by Molson sliced the Dukes' deficit to 52-50 with 1:01 left.

Ryan Dunn's driving layup with 36 seconds left gave Virginia a 54-50 cushion.

Morse missed a 3-pointer and Molson committed a turnover before Clark made a free throw with 8.6 seconds left for the final margin.

Virginia improved to 12-1 in the in-state rivalry and avenged last December's 52-49 loss at James Madison.

James Madison took its only lead at 8-7 on Morse's 3-pointer with 16:01 left in the first half.

The Dukes scored just two points over the next 10-plus minutes until Morse made another trey at the 5:58 mark, cutting Virginia's lead to 17-13.

Armaan Franklin's 3-pointer put the Cavaliers up 24-13 with 3:27 left in the first and Virginia held a 27-20 edge at halftime.

Virginia lost starting guard Reece Beekman to a right hamstring injury less than four minutes into the game.

He has time to get healthy, though, as the Cavaliers are off until a Dec. 17 showdown at home against No. 1 Houston.