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Mamadi Diane led UVa in scoring for the second straight game, pouring in 21 points in the loss. |
The Sunshine State woes continued Wednesday night for the Virginia men’s basketball team as it lost to Florida State in Tallahassee, 69-67. It is Virginia’s sixth straight loss in the Donald L. Tucker Center and its eighth consecutive loss in the state of Florida.
This pill was tough to swallow for Dave Leitao’s group as it gave up a double-digit lead in the second half to let the game slip away. A Sean Singletary steal and dunk gave the Cavs a 56-46 lead with 8:55 to go. However, the Seminoles responded with a 23-11 run to end the game and take the victory.
Virginia struggled down the stretch as it went scoreless from the 5:36 mark when a pair of Singletary free throws put the Cavaliers up 60-53 to 1:24 when Jerome Meyinsse tied the game at 62 with a dunk courtesy of Calvin Baker.
A pair of untimely Singletary turnovers allowed Florida State to tie the game and ultimately put the game away late in the second half. Following a Meyinsse defensive rebound, Singletary brought the ball up the court with the Cavs leading 60-57. Caught sleeping, the ball was poked loose from Singletary by Seminole forward Ryan Reid who dove to the floor and called timeout to keep possession. Florida State took advantage as Isaiah Swann buried a 3-pointer from the right corner to tie the game with 2:29 to play.
With Meyinsse’s aforementioned dunk tying the game, Florida State leading scorer Tony Douglas drew a foul on Meyinsse. The 82% free throw shooter knocked down one of two to give the Noles a one-point advantage with 47 seconds to play. Trailing by one, Singletary looked to make something happen, but Douglas anticipated Singletary’s cross over and came up with a clean pick of the Cavalier point guard. Douglas raced the other way as Meyinsse gave chase and was nabbed with a questionable intentional foul. Douglas knocked down both of his free throws and Swann added another to put the game out of reach for Virginia.
When Leitao was asked of the questionable call, he simply replied with “Next question.”
Douglas hounded Singletary all game as he held the All-American to 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting, including 1 for 5 from behind the line. Singletary also pitched in 7 assists, but committed five turnovers. Singletary’s double-digit scoring streak looked to be over before he hit a meaningless three at the buzzer to close the game at 69-67 and extend the streak to 39 games. However, according to Leitao, Singletary was hobbled coming into the game.
“Sean did a defensive job on himself,” Leitao said of his point guard’s performance. “He was playing on one leg today, so it made it a lot easier for Douglas or anyone else.”
The blame for this loss cannot be put on Singletary’s supporting cast as the Cavs got another outstanding performance from swingmen Mamadi Diane and Adrian Joseph . Diane finished with a game-high 21 points, including a 5 of 9 night from 3-point range, while Joseph pitched in 17 points and a team-high 8 rebounds. Having been criticized most of the year for their inconsistency, both came off a strong performances against Boston College and delivered again for Virginia. It is the first time in Diane’s career that he has registered back-to-back 20-point performances.
Virginia, who got off to slow starts in its first two conference losses at Duke and at home to Virginia Tech, came out ready to play from the beginning tonight. The Cavaliers jumped out to a quick 15-5 advantage in the first half with 15:05 remaining. Florida State then tightened up its defense and outscored Virginia 26-13 to close the half. The Cavs were 4 of 19 from the field during that stretch after starting off 6 for 9.
With the loss, Virginia has dug itself into a hole to start conference play having lost three of its first four games. The Cavaliers must hold serve at home as it takes on Georgia Tech Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the John Paul Jones Arena.
“As far as I know, we have to take care of business when we get back home,” Leitao said. “You know, this is a very unforgiving league, and you got to get back in the gym and keep working. You have a game [coming up] with the same level of intensity, the same level of offense and defense, and so you can’t hold your head down for too long.”
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