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Sean Singletary scored 22 points to lead the way past Miami. |
Virginia coach Dave Leitao probably would have preferred a more comfortable outing against Miami on Saturday. As things played out, he had to settle for a gritty effort that led to an 81-70 victory as the Cavaliers pulled out to a double-digit lead in the first 11 minutes and held the Hurricanes at bay the rest of the way.
Leitao was pleased with his players’ maturity and ability to bounce back so soon after the emotional win over Duke. The Cavs knocked off the No. 8 Blue Devils 68-66 in overtime in a late-night game on Thursday.
“Obviously in winning the game today, the most satisfactory part about it is our maturity off a very emotional night Thursday with only a day to prepare,” Leitao said. “We were walking into the building tonight and people were saying ‘congratulations’ from Thursday night and never said ‘good luck’ for today. That is what we were dealing with from a mental standpoint.”
“So what we were talking to the guys about was maturity. … Dealing with success is as delicate as dealing with adversity and that was our chore over the last couple of days,” he continued. “I thought at the beginning of the game we responded well. We didn’t play our best game, didn’t play our best emotional game, but I give credit to them for taking care of their business.”
For UVa, the victory over Miami was the seventh league win, and 15th overall, this season. That matched last year’s totals with eight games still remaining on the regular season schedule. Leitao sees that fact as a positive.
“I thought about that the other day. We essentially have the same group as last year plus some young guys and some new people. What it does say is that we’re making improvements year to year, and hopefully, programmatically,” Leitao said. “Obviously year to year, you may not keep going up in terms of wins, but we’re building. We’ve got to embrace it. I think a large part of it is because our two guards, Sean and J.R., are playing as well as any two guards in America can play and give us an opportunity to be successful every night. They’re trust-worthy and make the right plays. That means they raise the level of everybody else around them and that allows us to be better.”
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J.R. Reynolds’ line was impressive: 18 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 0 turnovers. |
Virginia wasted little time getting the lead against the Hurricanes. After falling behind 2-0 and 4-2, the Hoos moved ahead on the scoreboard just 1:26 into the game and never trailed again.
A strong outing from the long-range shooting gallery in the first half propelled the Hoos out front and helped build a working margin that was never threatened. They made 8 of 16 3-point shots (and 13 of 26 attempts overall) to lead by 16 points at intermission, 41-25. Reynolds, Diane, and Singletary led the way in the category, making two each.
The early success probably led to some ill-advised quick shots before intermission – UVa made 5 treys in the first six minutes – but two 3-pointers later in the half played a key role in building the double-digit lead. Will Harris and Sean Singletary bookended an 11-0 run with trifectas to create a 32-18 lead and the cushion never dropped below 11 points the rest of the way.
“To turn around [so quickly] we had to be mature and disciplined. … It’s all mental. We were definitely there mentally. We were able to get stops, box out, get rebounds, and run in transition to jump out on them early,” Singletary said. “They don’t really pressure the ball so we were able to play comfortably on offense; we were able to jump out on them and get a nice-sized lead and after that, we didn’t look back.”
Singletary seemed to be a little off mentally in one phase of the game – free throws. He made just 8 of 13 freebies on the night, a somewhat shocking number when you consider he had missed just 12 all season long before Saturday night. Still, he put together a solid statistical showing with 22 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1 steal with just 2 turnovers.
“I was just off. I was off-balance and lost my focus a little,” he said about the charity stripe struggles. “It’s something that can be fixed.”
The Cavaliers’ other dynamic guard had a strong night as well. Reynolds scored 18 points to go with 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 0 turnovers in just 28 minutes. Other statistical stars included Diane (14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists), Jason Cain (8 points, 9 rebounds), and Harris (9 points, 4 rebounds).
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Mamadi Diane throws down an alley-oop. |
“I thought our perimeter defense was poor tonight. Their perimeter guys completely dominated us on the perimeter – Diane, Singletary, and Reynolds,” Miami coach Frank Haith said. “We really struggled keeping those guys from going where they wanted to go, and they got into such a good rhythm shooting the basketball, which made it very difficult for us. When [they weren’t making shots], we ended up fouling and putting them on the line, which made them very difficult to defend. You look at the stat line; we make one less field goal than they make, but they make more free throws than we shoot. They’re a good team; their backcourt is probably the best backcourt in the league, with Singletary and Reynolds. Those guys completely dominate the game.”
Those perimeter players have helped carry the Cavaliers to a recently unfamiliar place: the top of the ACC standings. The Hoos’ win, coupled with UNC’s loss earlier in the day, moved the team into a first-place tie with Boston College in the conference. Leitao and his players were aware of that fact both before and after the game. After all, the students began chanting “Hoos in first place” late in the contest so there was no avoiding it. The Cavs didn’t shy away from the inevitable questions.
“We need to try to embrace it. We’re not alone in first place so we have to continue to fight. We have a very difficult game on Tuesday so if we’re not successful there, then there will be three days where we’ll get to enjoy it,” Leitao said. “It’s something this late in the season that you can look at as an accomplishment, but the only accomplishment that we’re really looking for is the one that comes at the end of the season that means that you’ve had a really good year. This journey is long and arduous and we have to do it day-by-day.”
“It’s great. It hasn’t been done before in my whole career,” Reynolds said. “Right now, it’s good that we’re tied for first. I saw that Carolina lost … so I knew that we could put ourselves in good position with a good game.”
“For me personally, I don’t feel that we’ve accomplished anything yet until we’re No.1 by ourselves and no one else is up there with us and we finish No. 1,” Harris said. “Because in the ACC, anybody can beat anybody on any given day so we just have to keep winning.”
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