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BY TAFT COGHILL JR.

CHARLOTTESVILLE--When it was announced Virginia would face Northwestern in the Atlantic Coast Conference-Big 10 Challenge the game seemed to be a mismatch.

Virginia is the defending ACC co-champions, while the Wildcats finished 10th in their conference last season with a 2-14 league record.

The match-up proved to be as lopsided as it appeared from the start.

The Cavaliers connected on 16 3-pointers en route to a 94-52 rout last night at John Paul Jones Arena.

The 42-point margin of victory is the largest in the history of the ACC-Big 10 Challenge.

"After finishing tied for first last year, it would've been great to have a much tougher team to play against," Virginia senior forward Adrian Joseph said, "especially around the ACC/Big 10 Challenge."

That wasn't the case as Virginia (4-1) improved to 5-3 all-time in the Challenge and 20-1 in John Paul Jones Arena.

Last night, the Cavaliers were paced by 22 points from junior guard Mamadi Diane, who drained a career-high six 3-pointers.

The Cavaliers didn't need much scoring from star point guard Sean Singletary. He finished with 14 points, his lowest output of the season, but added a career-high 10 assists.

Diane admitted he was surprised when he saw the lowly Wildcats on the schedule for the Challenge, but added that he's used to seeing the Cavaliers in non-marquee games.

"We were picked to finish pretty low in the conference as we are every year," Diane said. "So this is something we've kind of gotten accustomed to--low expectations."

Diane may be exaggerating a bit because the Cavaliers were predicted to finish fifth in the ACC by the media.

But they were a far superior team last night.

In addition to Diane and Singletary's strong performances, reserve sophomore guard Calvin Baker contributed 16 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the floor. Virginia out-rebounded the Wildcats 43-28 and its 16 3s were two shy of a school record. It led by as many as 45 points.

Northwestern (1-4) was playing without standout sophomore forward Kevin Coble. Coble (13.4 points per game last season) is taking a leave of absence from the team to be with his mother, who is dealing with breast cancer.