Hoos Hammer Hampton

Sammy Zeglinski recorded 11 points, 4 assists, and 4 steals against Hampton.

The Virginia men’s basketball team finished the pre-ACC portion of its non-conference schedule above .500 after a 74-48 win against Hampton on Tuesday night. Thanks to an inspired performance from Mike Scott and ever-improving team defense, the contest was not close for the majority of the final half as the Cavaliers improved their season record to 5-4.

UVa coach Dave Leitao said it was good to go into a short holiday break on a good note, particularly with Georgia Tech looming on the horizon this weekend.

“Any time you go into a holiday, you want to go into it on a good note and I thought over the course of the game that we evened ourselves out in terms of not having as many highs and lows,” Leitao said. “We started off really quick, sharing the basketball and pushing the basketball and it led to some high percentage shots that we fortunately made and our defense was sound enough to get us the ball back.”

Hampton coach Kevin Nickelberry said the Cavaliers looked like a focused and purposeful group.

“I was pretty sure Dave would get them ready to play. I’m not sure if I need to fire myself or my assistants, but this is not a team I’ve seen on tape the last two weeks,” Nickelberry said. “We saw a team that was probably underachieving and we were probably overachieving and we went out into a fight and got hit in the face. They played with a purpose. They really played with a purpose. When they didn’t get good shots, they really attacked the glass against us. They didn’t allow us to get out and do the things we want to do.”

Scott certainly wasn’t dreaming of sugar plums or stocking stuffers a couple of days early. No, his thoughts were on stat stuffing instead. Scott recorded his third double-double of the season and finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, and 1 assist. He made 6 of 10 shots and 5 of 6 free throws.

But it wasn’t the numbers that were the most impressive part of his night. After all, he’s had monster statistical lines against small conference teams before – VMI anyone? No, Scott, who openly criticized in glum fashion his own rebounding effort (3 rebounds) after the Auburn loss Saturday night while at the same time praising the passion of Assane Sene , appeared to have a new sense of urgency in his game Tuesday night. He let out numerous vocal shouts. He dove on the floor with abandon. He snatched rebounds over top of anyone in his path, teammates and Pirates alike.

“I apologized to them for being, I used the word soft, passive, some other words I can’t say. I told them that won’t happen again, that I won’t have another rebounding performance like that again and I told them I’d own up to my word,” Scott said.

Mike Scott scored 17 points and grabbed 15 boards.

“Just going back to the Auburn game, I really was down on myself a lot. Most coaches tell you don’t feel sorry for yourself, but I kind of took that route,” he said later of his fiery demeanor against Hampton. “I stayed up all night and couldn’t sleep. I really couldn’t wait to get out here and play again.”

It’s something Leitao said this team needs more of as the season grows older.

“All the guys. We’re not that rah-rah group where we’re fist-waving and all of that. I think we have to get better in that area and he’s one of the guys,” Leitao said. “I thought he did a good job in our game prep talking about it on the court. In our meetings, he was asking the right questions which he hadn’t done as consistently as he did over the last two or three days. I’m hoping it’s a sign of good things to come from him and that it rubs off on everybody else.”

Tunji Soroye blocks a shot, one of 10 on the night for Virginia.

Nickelberry was very impressed with Scott’s determination on the night.

“Scott was a man in there. He really was a man. We had said on the scouting report if you hit him early, if you box him out early, he won’t keep chasing. We hit him two or three times and he kept chasing. It got to the point I was asking for over the backs, which I don’t usually do,” Nickelberry said with a chuckle. “I’m not sure if this is the Virginia team we’ll see all year, but tonight they were a hungry team. They were a lot hungrier than I’ve seen them in the last couple of games.”

While Scott seemed to have a new spring in his step, the Cavaliers also continued to show improvements on the defensive end of the floor. While breakdowns remain in the critical areas of containment on dribble drives and secondary help rotations (not the initial help defender, but the next level of help defenders), the Hoos by and large are taking small steps toward strong team defense.

UVa held Hampton to 28.8% shooting for the game, including a strong second half where the Pirates made just 9 shots. The Cavaliers blocked 10 shots, a season-high and the most in a game since the 2007 Longwood contest when they had 12. Virginia also had 6 steals, including a career-high 4 steals from Sammy Zeglinski.

Nickelberry praised the Cavs’ effort on the defensive end.

“Their game plan was pretty good, actually it was excellent,” he said. “We felt we could drive the ball against them. They weren’t doing a great job earlier in the year of taking charges and things like that, but they must have taken three or four charges against us and really took [the driving game] away from us. … We felt if we could get chest to chest with them, we could get to the free throw line but they surprised us today. They were really in helpside. They really were focused on the scouting report and taking charges, pushing our scorers further out than we wanted to be. … They closed out short and made us take a lot of threes, which we didn’t really want to do. We got to the end of the shot clock way too many times and took bad shots.”

Statistics


(For complete coverage of the Virginia basketball team, please sign up for the Sabre Edge. EDGE subscribers get exclusive analysis, features, and more!)