No. 3 Virginia weathered a slow offensive day and pulled away from Miami 56-46 on Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville, Va.

Playing without junior guard Ty Jerome, who sat out due to a back injury, the Cavaliers crept back to their roots of tough defense and held a ninth opponent under 50 points this season.

Three players scored in double figures for Virginia (20-1, 8-1 ACC) despite Jerome's absence. De'Andre Hunter led the way with 14 points. Mamadi Diakite put in 11 points while recording three blocks.

Cavaliers guard Kyle Guy shot just 4 of 15 shooting and scored 10 points.

Miami (9-12, 1-8 ACC) shot just 34 percent from the floor and never got closer than four points in the second half as it was held to 4-of-21 shooting from beyond the arc. Chris Lykes scored 16 points to lead the Hurricanes.

The Cavaliers outrebounded Miami 42-24 and despite committing 14 turnovers allowed the Hurricanes to score just four points off of those miscues.

Both offenses struggled in the first half as neither team cracked 40 percent shooting from the field. Miami shot just 28 percent and was outrebounded 25-11.

Virginia led for the majority of the half and by as many as 10 before taking a 28-21 lead into the locker room.

The Cavaliers shot 39.3 percent but felt the effects of Jerome's absence as their offense never got in a rhythm. Hunter scored 10 points to lead the way in the half.

Miami got eight points from Lykes including a 3-pointer to end the half and cut the deficit to seven.

Virginia will return to action on Feb. 9 when it hosts Duke, the team that handed the Cavaliers their lone loss of the season, on Jan. 19. Miami plays host to Notre Dame on Wednesday.

--Field Level Media