COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tony Bennett believed No. 10 Virginia had a deep bench.
He was right.
Malcolm Brogdon scored 22 points, his third consecutive game with more than 20, and Darius Thompson had 12 points in place of starting guard London Perrantes, leading Virginia to a 64-58 defeat of Ohio State on Tuesday night.
“We are veteran team that has depth,” Bennett said. “I’ve talked about that a lot this year so it was an opportunity to see if we had legitimate depth. That showed against a team that’s talented but isn’t a veteran team.”
Perrantes had an appendectomy on Sunday, and Bennett did not know when the junior starter who averages 10 points, 5.3 assists and 2.8 rebounds, would return.
“We have a really deep team,” forward Isaiah Wilkins said. “Of course, we’ll miss him but we have guys who can step up for as long as he’s out and when he’s back, we’ll have a full team again.”
The Cavaliers (6-1) won their fifth consecutive game, but it was the first time in the streak they did not score at least 80 points. Anthony Gill added 10 points and eight rebounds for Virginia.
Despite a different tempo than what the Cavaliers are used to, Wilkins said the players stuck to their plan.
“We continue to run our stuff and run it hard,” he said. “I believe in our system and our coaches. That’s a young team over there, but they have a lot of talent. They played us hard. It was a good test for us.”
Ohio State (2-4) lost its fourth in a row. Marc Loving had 19 points for the Buckeyes.
Keita Bates-Diop added 15 points, including a 3-pointer to pull the Buckeyes to 61-58 before Brogdon hit a pair of free throws.
“That’s one of the best kids, honestly, that I’ve seen because he’s so patient, he’s so smooth,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said of Brogdon. “He’s so efficient when he plays.”
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