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Sylven Landesberg and Sammy Zeglinski celebrate a tough win over South Florida. |
Wednesday night’s match-up between power conference teams at the John Paul Jones Arena had a tinge of uncertainty from the outset. After all, it was the first ever meeting between South Florida and Virginia. Both teams have been handed low expectations from conference media in the preseason, due in large part to the unknowns of the roster. SF is waiting for its roster to round out with transfers, while UVa is working to forge an identity the year after Sean Singletary .
So what did fans end up getting? A rugged, hard fought battle that frequently materializes when teams from the Big East and ACC get together. It had the feel of a preseason tournament – a small and sparingly boisterous crowd, a pair of teams unable to string together possessions on either end of the floor, and Karl Hess making his presence known. At the final buzzer, the Cavaliers had squeaked out a 77-75 victory thanks to balanced scoring, a little defense down the stretch, and enough free throws to get by – barely.
“Had we won I would have said this was a fun and entertaining game,” Bulls coach Stan Heath said. “I thought both teams played well and the game could have gone either way. The free throws were the huge difference. We didn’t make ours and they did. That was the part we just could not quite overcome. I am proud of our guys and I thought we fought hard.”
In the end, the game featured 14 ties and 19 lead changes, including 2 ties and 2 lead changes in the final 2:12. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, the final tip of the see-saw left them on top thanks to a clutch drive-and-dish from Calvin Baker that left rapidly impressing freshman Sylven Landesberg alone for the go-ahead lay-up with 13 seconds to play. Virginia held on to win through a pair of Dominique Jones’ drives in the final 30 seconds.
On the decisive offensive play, the Hoos’ huddle plans broke down as South Florida showed a 1-3-1 zone look out of the timeout because the defensive scheme had some success earlier in the game. The zone managed to get UVa out of synch momentarily, but Mike Scott set a high ball screen to help Baker find some space around the top of the key. He used a spin dribble to avoid the outside wing in the zone and attacked down the lane line where SF’s middle defender stepped up to stop the drive – Baker had scored on a similar move a few minutes earlier after all.
That left Landesberg free on the baseline where he caught the drop-off pass from Baker and quickly laid it in the basket for the 76-75 lead. He eventually added one point to the final total by making 1 of 2 free throws and the Cavs survived Jones’ last-moment drives to try to lift the visitors.
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Calvin Baker dished out the game-winning assist. |
“They were playing zone and the [middle man] was watching me closely, but he had to stop Calvin because Calvin would have scored if he didn’t stop him. So he went up and that’s why I was wide open,” Landesberg said. “I was just running the baseline trying to find an open spot. That’s when Calvin penetrated and I ran to that spot and the man stepped up so I was just wide open.”
That final lay-up capped what was another impressive night for the true freshmen McDonald’s All-American. He finished with 21 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals in another stat-stuffing outing. Landesberg, who played every position but center in the game, debuted over the weekend with 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists against VMI.
“I didn’t expect that in the first two games he’d get 28 and 21. But I never really worried about his presence. He’s got a quiet without cocky presence as a basketball player and I noticed that early on, and it’s just getting him caught up from an experience standpoint, but he’s got a very good mind for the game and a very good competitive spirit,” Leitao said. “Most good players that grow up in New York City have that by reputation and his reputation happens to be true. I’m not surprised by his mindset.”
While Baker was “resilient” as Leitao called it – his only basket (1 of 5) and the key assist both came in the final 2:31 where he also missed two late free throws – and Landesberg prominent, it was Jamil Tucker who was pertinent.
The junior forward came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting. The shots included a key 3-pointer to help loosen up the zone and prevent the Bulls from potentially running away with the game around the 8-minute mark of the second half; Tucker’s 3 cut the lead to 63-61 at the time and pulled the Hoos back into the contest. He also added 7 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal while playing several minutes at the power forward position as the Cavs went to a small ball type of look with Tucker and Mike Scott (10 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist) in the post positions.
“The Tucker kid was the biggest surprise. I think of any player in this game that maybe stood out, did a little bit more than we expected, it was him,” Heath said. “He was able to make the 3s, made some shots. He was quite different than the impression I got early in the game.”
While Tucker helped make the difference in the end, the Cavaliers nearly let the free throw line be their undoing. They shot 18 of 28 at the stripe with all 10 of those misses coming in the second half. Five of those misses came in the final 5:30. Tucker missed one that could have made it a two-possession game in the final 1:20 while Baker missed two that eventually left the Hoos in a one-point hole when Jones made a pair of free throws for SF. Landesberg also missed one in the final 10 seconds, leaving the chance for the Cavs to lose on a 3-pointer.
But they didn’t. They held on. Despite missing 10 freebies. Despite allowing 49.2% shooting. In other words, UVa is 2-0 but there is plenty of work to be done.
“Without playing particularly well today, we still were able to win. And were able do it a little bit ‘gutty’. In the last five minutes, we were finally getting some stops that we weren’t successful in stringing together in the previous 35 [minutes],” Leitao said. “We had some timely plays on the offensive end and a couple of mishaps that we didn’t pay prices for. Those kinds of things hopefully mean that as we look at this thing overall, we can have enough experiences to grow from. If that’s the case then today ends up being a real positive day.”
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