LEXINGTON, Va. — Junior guard Devin Kearns (Cibolo, Texas / Samuel Clemens) recorded his first career double-double with 19 points and 10 assists, and the Washington and Lee men's basketball team went on a 30-4 run midway through the game on its way to a 96-57 victory over Southern Virginia on Tuesday at the Warner Center. The win also marked the first for W&L Head Coach Chris McHugh.

The Generals (1-2) held a 33-30 lead with 2:57 left in the first half, and then the team closed the stanza on a 10-2 spurt, capped on an old-fashioned three-point play by Kearns with two seconds on the clock, to take a 43-32 advantage into halftime.

The 15-minute intermission didn't cool off the Blue and White, as W&L scored the first 13 points of the second half. Senior forward Clayton Murtha (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park) started the run with a layup off a feed from Kearns. Then Kearns netted back-to-back buckets to push the margin to 17 (49-32) by the 19:02 mark.

Following another layup from Murtha, sophomore guard Kevin Dennin (Severna Park, Md./Severn School) splashed a triple, and then another basket from Murtha stretched the lead to 56-32 with 16:05 left in the half.

A couple of free throws by the Knights (3-1) momentarily stopped the onslaught, but back-to-back layups by junior forward Roy McMillan (Raleigh, N.C./Broughton) and first-year forward Curtis Mitchell (Chevy Chase, Md./Georgetown Prep) put the Blue and White in front, 60-34, with 14:38 left in the game. The Generals extended the lead to as large as 42 over the closing 14 minutes, before reaching the final margin of 96-57.

Kearns set a new career high with his 10 assists, and he also registered a season-high four steals. Murtha totaled 24 points on 7-of-11 from the field and 10-of-11 from the foul line. McMillan added 17 points and seven rebounds, while first-year guard William Brueggeman (Houston, Texas/Strake Jesuit College Prep) contributed a season-high 12 points off the bench.

A pressure defense by the Generals forced SVU into 26 turnovers, while W&L only had 12. The Blue and White also out-rebounded the Knights, 46-42, despite the fact SVU came into the game out-rebounding opponents by 23.0 rebounds per contest.

The Generals hit 44.4 percent (32-of-72) of their shots from the field, 36.4 percent (8-of-22) from the three-point line and 77.4 percent (24-of-31) from the charity stripe.

The Knights connected on 21-of-59 (35.6 percent) from the floor, 2-of-10 (20.0 percent) from long range and 13-of-24 (54.2 percent) from the foul line.

The 39-point spread is the largest margin of victory for the Generals since they defeated Cairn by 39 points, 87-48, on December 29, 2013.

W&L breaks for Thanksgiving and then opens ODAC play on Sunday against Hampden-Sydney at 2:00 pm in the Warner Center.

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