Previewing No. 24 Virginia basketball’s matchup with Maryland Eastern Shore

The No. 24 Virginia Cavaliers return home to John Paul Jones Arena on Tuesday night to face the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks in their final game before a ten-day break for finals.

The ’Hoos are coming off their best two performances of the season this past week, a 19-point dismantling of Texas in a true road game last Wednesday before taking care of Dayton in a neutral-site matchup in Charlotte on Saturday.

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The pair of impressive wins vaulted the ’Hoos into this week’s AP Poll for the first time since February of 2024 and shot Virginia into the top 25 of most major computer rankings (No. 21 on KenPom, No. 17 in the NET, No. 21 in the T-Rank).

UVA, which is 3-0 all-time vs. UMES, last played the Hawks in November of 2022 — a 72-45 victory for the ’Hoos. Tip-off on Tuesday is set for 7 PM EST with streaming coverage available on ACC Network X.

What to know about Maryland Eastern Shore:

The Hawks are coached by Cleo Hill Jr., who spent six seasons leading Winston-Salem State before becoming UMES’s head coach last season. Though the Hawks finished just 6-25 in year one under Hill Jr., they faced one of the nation’s 20 hardest non-conference strength-of-schedule ratings (according to KenPom).

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This season, Hill Jr.’s squad has begun with a similar gauntlet of non-conference competition, as the ’Hoos represent the fifth power-conference opponent for UMES in its first 13 games. Despite taking Georgia Tech to overtime in their first game of the season, the Hawks haven’t had much success so far and head to Charlottesville with an overall record of 4-8.

Forward Joseph Locandro and guard Justin Monden are the Hawks to look out for on Tuesday night. Locandro, a 6-foot-9 senior from Melbourne, Australia, is leading UMES in scoring with 12.4 points per game. A stretch four who can really space the floor, Loacandro is shooting 52.3% from beyond the arc on over 3.6 attempts per game.

Monden, despite coming off the bench in each of the Hawks’ 12…

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Publish date : 2025-12-09 13:02:00

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