The Virginia men’s basketball team has lost 4 of 5 games and 5 of its last 8 after an 84-78 loss at Maryland on Tuesday night. The clear theme in the recent skid? Poor first half performances leading to poor final results. In each of the losses in the last month – including all three conference setbacks – UVa has looked sluggish offensively and a little slow defensively before halftime, leading to an average deficit of 12.6 points and eventually defeat.
Virginia’s Last 5 Losses |
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Halftime Scores |
Tuesday’s contest with the Terrapins followed the script to the letter. After a competitive start for several minutes, Maryland put together a half-ending surge that left the Cavaliers in a giant hole. The Terps pulled ahead by 17 points at 45-28 when Greivis Vasquez hit a 3-pointer and only a pair of Mike Scott free throws in the final 30 seconds helped cut the margin to 15 at the intermission horn. Maryland shot 58.6% in the first half while Virginia checked in at 34.5% thanks in large part to a 2 of 13 effort from beyond the arch.
“We have to address it because it’s a disturbing pattern. Obviously if you continue to do that, you’re not going to have opportunities to win basketball games or enough of them anyway,” UVa coach Dave Leitao told the Virginia Sports Network. “There are too many good teams, too many good players, and a lot of great coaches so we’ve got to do a better job of coming out at the start of games with a higher level of concentration and motivation.”
While the pattern is disturbing, Virginia did make a run at a comeback this time around and Scott’s two free throws late in the first half provided a glimpse of how the Cavaliers would claw back. The Hoos fed Scott repeatedly near the blocks in the second half and he delivered with either buckets or trips to the free throw line. The increased focus on feeding the sophomore forward led to a strong second half where he had 14 points.
In the end, Scott finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his sixth double-double of the season. Scott has reached double figures in scoring 10 times this season, including a streak currently at seven games. He made all 10 of his free throw attempts Tuesday.
“What we talked about at halftime was getting a piece of the paint in a lot of different ways,” Leitao said. “Obviously with Mike on the post-up or anybody with a strong post-up and/or drive, drives for lay-ups or drives to kickouts or pull-ups, and offensive rebounds. We found something in him to go to and it worked.”
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Mike Scott had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the loss at Maryland. |
Scott’s play combined with the scoring of Jamil Tucker (career-high 21 points) and Calvin Baker (season-high 16 points) helped the Hoos close to within one or two baskets several times in the second half. The slimmest margin came with 5 minutes to play when two more Scott free throws trimmed the deficit to 65-63.
Unfortunately for Virginia, it was a short-lived glimmer of hope. Why? The Hoos couldn’t get a key stop when they needed it most down the stretch.
On the very next Maryland possession, the Terps created offense with a dribble drive to the middle and pitched the ball out to senior Dave Neal on the right wing. He calmly knocked down the 3-pointer to push the advantage to 68-63. After Tucker scored for the Cavs to again cut it to one possession at 68-65, the Terrapins’ Landon Milbourne made two free throws to push the lead back to five and the lead never dipped below four points again the rest of the way. Only a pair of desperation treys kept things interesting in the final minute as Maryland picked up the win.
So another road loss leaves the Cavaliers with a 1-3 ACC record with just one more game on the schedule in January. The good news, in theory, is that the Hoos have been competitive in road losses at Maryland and Virginia Tech. Certainly some of the struggles for stretches of those games can be chalked up to inexperienced growing pains for a young team that starts three freshmen and a sophomore. But Leitao isn’t using that as an excuse.
“Honestly, this is basketball at the highest level and youth certainly has to play somewhat of a role, but we’re not the only young team. You can’t fall short night after night and say it’s just because we’re young because we’re in the middle of the season right now and they’re not nearly as young as they were at the beginning,” Leitao said. “We have to move past that and we have to be able to execute and give ourselves an opportunity to win games by our execution not by our age.”
