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Devin Smith scored 40 points, one more than his teammates. |
Despite a magnificent performance by Devin Smith and an impressive second-half comeback, Virginia suffered its first loss of the season in one of the toughest road venues in America. Curtis Stinson’s 3-pointer with 18.6 seconds left ended up giving Iowa State an 81-79 victory as the 19th-ranked Cavaliers missed three chances to tie in the final seconds.
Playing before a boisterous crowd of 12,224 at Hilton Coliseum, where the Cyclones have now gone 21-1 in the past two seasons, the Cavs (6-1) nearly found a way to win. Smith almost singlehandedly kept them in the game by scoring 40 points. He finally got some help in the final seven minutes as Virginia rallied from an 11-point deficit and took a 79-77 lead on a bank shot by Gary Forbes with 27 seconds remaining. But it wasn’t quite enough.
Stinson, who led Iowa State (4-1) with 30 points, drained his fifth trey of the game after J.R. Reynolds got stuck behind a screen. Sean Singletary ‘s pass was stolen and Will Blalock’s free throw made it 81-79 with nine seconds left, but UVa had several cracks at forcing overtime. With the Wahoos out of timeouts, Singletary raced downcourt and missed a difficult layup after a spin move in the lane. Tips by Elton Brown and Forbes glanced off the rim just before time expired.
“We’re very disappointed we didn’t win. We don’t believe in moral victories,” said UVa coach Pete Gillen. “But Iowa State’s a good team. Very tough place to play. I’m proud of our kids.”
After earning narrow victories over Northwestern and Auburn in the past six days, the Cavaliers nearly overcame the adversity of another long road trip and a difficult environment for visiting teams in Ames, Iowa. Smith carried the load, scoring 25 points in the first half and 40 of the team’s first 63 points. The senior forward surpassed his previous career high of 30 early in the second half and became the eighth Cavalier to reach the 40-point plateau. Other than Donald Hand, who erupted for 41 vs. N.C. State in 1999, no UVa player had scored 40 since Ralph Sampson in 1981.
“He was spectacular,” Gillen said. “He was cramping up. He had 40 points on the road in this tough atmosphere. He had so much courage and heart, he was unbelievable. I’ve got to take my hat off to him. It’s just a crying shame that him playing such a great game we can’t come away with a victory.”
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Elton Brown finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. |
Smith made 11 of 17 shots and 14 of 15 free throws. He scored 20 of UVa’s final 25 points in the first half and made four 3-pointers before the Cyclones finally slowed him down with a box-and-one defense.
“I played good tonight,” Smith said, “but it doesn’t really matter if we don’t come away with the win.”
Virginia stayed close by making 23 of 27 free throws, while Iowa State went 12 for 27 from the line. After the Cyclones starting pay more attention to Smith, the rest of the Cavs stepped up. Adrian Joseph scored four points and Singletary, saddled by foul trouble most of the game, made a 3-pointer during an 11-0 run that tied the game at 70. J.R. Reynolds hit a 16-footer to knot it with 4:15 left for his only basket of the game.
From there, the lead changed hands four times. Forbes scored all five of his points in the final two minutes, hitting a baseline jumper, a free throw and a tough runner off the glass to make it 79-77. But Stinson spoiled the comeback with his 3-pointer from the left wing when Reynolds left him open while trying to come underneath a screen. Stinson, a 20-percent shooter from long range coming into the game, missed just once on six 3-point shots and also finished with six assists and three steals.
“We couldn’t stop him,” Gillen said. “We couldn’t guard him man-to-man, zone, box-and-one. We couldn’t stop him.”
After Singletary’s pass was tipped away by Iowa State center Jared Homan, the Cavs had to foul Blalock, who made the second of two free throws. Gillen used his last timeout with 8:10 remaining (two of those came seconds before TV timeouts would have stopped play), so Virginia was unable to set up a play. Instead, Singletary took it coast-to-coast, driving into the lane and trying to shoot a layup over Homan from the right block. The ball fell off the rim.
Brown, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double of the season, just missed a tip-in and Forbes did the same from the other side.
“We can’t give them a 3-point shot when we’re only up two with under a minute left,” Smith said. “We can’t afford to make mental mistakes down the stretch.”
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