CHARLOTTESVILLE -- More than seven minutes had elapsed Wednesday night before Virginia took its first field-goal attempt from inside the 3-point arc.

Nobody heard coach Dave Leitao complaining.

Eight of Virginia's first nine shots were 3-pointers and Northwestern had no answer in a 94-52 loss in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

It was the most points scored by a Northwestern opponent in coach Bill Carmody's seven seasons, and the Wildcats had allowed as many as 90 points on only one other occasion.

"Needless to say, down by 40 points, we were never really in the game," Carmody said. "Virginia is a great 3-point shooting team and we just were not able to do anything about it."

Junior forward Mamadi Diane made a career-high six 3-pointers and sophomore guard Calvin Baker was 4-for-4 from beyond the arc as Virginia improved its record to 6-1.

The Cavaliers had 12 3-pointers in racing to a 54-29 halftime lead and finished 16-of-32 from the line, two off the school record for 3-point field goals in a game.

"Would I take a layup over a jump shot?" Leitao asked. "Most coaches would, but we've got far too many options on the perimeter not to encourage our guys to take 'em. Especially in the first half, when we were making them, far be it from me to say, 'Guys, stop shooting. Let's change our strategy.'

"Right now, we're not going to be a pound-it-inside team. That's not our makeup. If I wanted to sell out to the 3-point jump shot, we would have attempted many more to this point. We were the best 3-point team in the [ACC] last year as far as makes and this year we're shooting more and making them at a higher percentage."

Baker, a transfer from William and Mary, was 6-for-6 overall and scored 16 points in 16 minutes.

"If you're a guy like Calvin Baker, who's a pretty good shooter, he becomes a better shooter because he's around shooters every single day," Leitao said. "It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Just like rebounding is important to me, shooting is becoming that important to me, where we do it every single day."

Virginia shoots particularly well at John Paul Jones Arena, where it was 16-1 last season and has won 20 of 21 games over two seasons. The Cavaliers tied for the ACC regular-season championship last year and were picked fifth this season, which made the pairing with Northwestern somewhat curious.

"It's some TV thing," said Carmody, whose Wildcats have played the Cavaliers three times in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, losing all three times. "If they're champs, they should be someplace else, probably. I don't know exactly what the deal is. They're supposed to pair them the way you finished."

The Big Ten does not have an official preseason poll, "but, if they did have one, we'd have to be near the bottom," Carmody said.

Northwestern lost 12 of 14 conference games last year but boasted one of the Big Ten's top freshmen in 6-foot-8 Kevin Coble, who led the Wildcats in scoring and rebounding in 2006-07. However, Coble has not played this season and has returned to his Phoenix home to be closer to his mother, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Northwestern's lone victory in five games has come over Benedictine, a Division III team from Illinois. The Wildcats shot 35.7 percent from the field Tuesday, converted only four of 15 free throws and were outrebounded 43-28.

UVa, which led by as many as 45 points, pulled Diane and Baker for good with 5:51 left. Diane finished with a game-high 22 points and the only other Cavaliers in double figures were Baker and Sean Singletary, who had 14 points and a career-high 10 assists.

It was the Cavaliers' fifth game in 11 days, three of them on the road, including a 74-60 loss Saturday to Seton Hall. Now, Virginia has five games, all at home, in the next five-plus weeks.

"One of the things we talked to the team about is the ability to bounce back," Leitao said. "I don't think anybody around here is too happy about what happened on Saturday."

Northwestern MP FG FT R A F PT

Ryan 23 0-1 1-5 4 2 2 1

Baran 28 2-7 0-1 0 2 2 4

Moore 35 3-10 0-0 6 1 4 9

Thompson 37 5-17 1-2 3 2 2 14

Williams 15 2-5 1-5 1 0 0 5

Okrzesik 24 5-8 0-0 2 1 3 12

Capocci 21 3-6 1-2 5 2 3 7

Houlihan 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Day 2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Peljusic 4 0-2 0-0 1 1 0 0

Melchior 8 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0

Totals 200 20-56 4-15 28 11 17 52

Virginia MP FG FT R A F PT

Diane 29 6-11 4-4 7 3 2 22

Joseph 18 3-9 0-0 5 0 1 8

Pettinella 10 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 0

Jones 21 2-8 4-5 5 1 2 8

Singletary 27 5-9 1-1 2 10 1 14

Farrakhan 8 1-3 0-0 1 0 0 2

Baker 16 6-6 0-0 2 1 3 16

Mikalauskas 12 2-2 3-4 6 0 2 7

Tucker 7 1-2 0-0 1 2 2 3

Zeglinski 10 1-2 0-0 2 2 2 2

Sherrill 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Burns 4 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 2

Scott 13 3-5 2-2 4 0 1 0

Totals 177 31-58 14-16 37 19 17 84

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Northwestern 29 23 -- 52

Virginia 54 40 -- 94

3-point goals:Northwestern 8-29 (Baran 0-4, Moore 3-8, Thompson 3-9, Williams 0-1, Okrzesik 2-5, Capocci 0-1, Peljusic 0-1), UVa 16-32 (Diane 6-9, Joseph 2-5, Jones 0-2, Singletary 3-6, Farrakhan 0-2, Baker 4-4, Tucker 1-2, Zeglinski 0-1, Harris 0-1).

Turnovers: Northwestern 16 (Thompson 4), UVa 13 (Diane 3, Zeglinski 3).

Blocked shots: Northwestern 0, UVa 3 (Diane 1, Joseph 1, Zeglinski 1).

Steals: Northwestern 6 (Williams 2), UVa 8 (Joseph 3).

Officials: Valentine, Maxwell, Shaw.

Attendance: 12,609.