Armaan Franklin scored 21 points to lead No. 18 Virginia to a 73-61 victory over visiting North Carolina Central in the season opener for both teams on Monday night in Charlottesville, Va.

Reece Beekman, Francisco Caffaro and Kadin Shedrick added 10 points each for the Cavaliers and Jayden Gardner scored his 2,000th career point and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

In the first-ever meeting between the Cavaliers of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Eagles of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Virginia’s signature stingy defense was put to the test.

Justin Wright scored 20 points and Eric Boone added 18 points for the Eagles, who erased a 16-point deficit and briefly held a second-half lead.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Marque Maultsby and Boone sparked a 12-0 run early in the second half as N.C. Central pulled ahead 44-43, its first lead since it was 2-0.

Virginia rallied with a 15-2 surge, with 3-pointers from Kihei Clark, Beekman and Ben Vander Plas restoring the lead to 58-46 with 10:10 to play.

The Cavaliers’ advantage remained in double figures over the final eight minutes, swelling to 71-56 on Clark’s triple with 3:37 remaining.

Virginia shot 44.0 percent (11 of 25) from behind the arc for the game and outscored N.C. Central 22-9 at the free-throw line. Franklin made 4 of 7 shots from 3-point range.

The Cavaliers canned their first three shots of the season from 3-point distance and started to pull away early.

Franklin’s third 3-pointer of the half gave Virginia its largest lead of the game at 31-15 with 7:08 left.

Wright responded and scored 10 of the Eagles’ next 15 points, including a 3-pointer in the final seconds to cut their halftime deficit to 38-30.

–Field Level Media