UVa no pushover in loss to Duke

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Late in Virginia’s 57-46 ACC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Duke on Friday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum, Cavaliers guard Sammy Zeglinski stole the basketball from Duke’s Jon Scheyer, raced the length of the court, missed an easy layup, got the rebound, missed another layup and watched as Duke’s Lance Thomas pulled down the rebound.

Hustle? Plenty of it. Heart? Unquestionable. Execution? Just a bit off. And that was the story of Friday’s game, one in which Virginia competed defensively as well as it has all season but just didn’t have enough in the way of playmaking to get past the top-seeded Blue Devils.

The game was tied at halftime and Virginia trailed by two with 6:24 remaining. But the Cavaliers didn’t score a field goal the rest of the way, and Duke’s stars — Scheyer, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith — took over.

“I’d like to think we had Duke nervous for a little while,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “But they showed why they’re a heck of a team. So well-coached. So poised.”

Virginia’s first season under Bennett ended with a 15-16 record, marking Virginia’s second straight losing season. The Cavaliers lost 10 of their last 11 games, but afterward, the players in UVa’s locker room skewed optimistic. Jerome Meyinsse and Solomon Tat reached the end of their Virginia careers Friday, but the core of the team that showed signs of life down the stretch will return.

(Though the status of suspended sophomore Sylven Landesberg remains a mystery.)

Bennett hasn’t wavered from his big-picture view of the program he is building, and he saw some positives in Friday’s performance, including the fact that Virginia held Duke to its lowest point total this season.

“We touched on, defensively, what we need to become to compete against a team like Duke,” he said.

Virginia’s only hope to compete Friday was to grind it out in the half court and keep Duke from scoring second-chance points. The strategy worked for about 33 minutes, but Virginia’s offense went cold and Duke slowly pulled away.

Mustapha Farrakhan’s 3-pointer with 6:24 left pulled UVa within 46-44. The Blue Devils went inside on their next possession. Singler backed down his defender and missed a turnaround jumper, but Smith grabbed the offensive board and stuck it home for a 48-44 lead. Scheyer made it 50-44 with a pretty banked layin with two seconds left on the shot clock and Singler made it 52-44 on a tip-in of a Thomas miss.

The 6-foot-8 Singler, who was often matched against 6-4 Virginia defenders Farrakhan and Jeff Jones, scored 14 of his game-high 18 points in the second half.

“He was definitely vocal out there,” said Jones, who led UVa with 15 points. “He wanted his teammates to get him the ball. He took it upon himself to be aggressive out there.”

After scoring two second-chance points in the first half, Duke scored 13 in the second, a big reason why the Devils pulled away. Still, Friday’s game was a stark contrast from the Feb. 28 meeting in Charlottesville, a game in which Duke raced to a 20-4 lead and blew out the Cavaliers.

“I don’t think it was the best game we ever played,” Duke coach Mike Kyrzyzewski said. “But I think Virginia had a lot to do with that and how they handled the ball and how they controlled tempo.”

Only four Cavaliers scored, and Zeglinski — who scored 21 points in the first-round win over Boston College on Thursday — was held scoreless on 0-for-9 shooting. He also had five turnovers but led the Cavaliers with four steals.

“When I’d come off a screen, they’d hedge really hard,” Zeglinski said. “They’d bring a big man, trying to make me give it up. Also, they’d switch off on me with other guys. I thought they did a good job of being aware where I was on the court.”

Virginia missed its last 10 field-goal attempts, killing any chance the Cavaliers had of matching Duke’s late run.

Said Jones: “They denied the wings a lot and they got aggressive. They matched our intensity, and our shots weren’t falling.”

VIRGINIA (15-16)

Farrakhan 3-9 2-2 9, Zeglinski 0-9 0-0 0, Jones 5-10 3-3 15, Scott 6-11 2-4 14, Meyinsse 3-9 2-2 8, Evans 0-2 0-0 0, Sene 0-1 0-0 0, Jonke 0-0 0-0 0, Sherrill 0-2 0-0 0, Tat 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-53 9-11 46.

DUKE (27-5)

Smith 6-12 2-3 15, Singler 7-14 2-3 18, Scheyer 5-17 4-4 15, Thomas 0-1 2-5 2, Zoubek 1-5 0-0 2, Ma.Plumlee 1-2 1-2 3, Dawkins 0-2 0-0 0, Mi.Plumlee 1-2 0-0 2, Kelly 0-0 0-0 0, Davidson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 11-17 57.

Halftime—Tied 27-27. 3-Point Goals—Virginia 3-14 (Jones 2-4, Farrakhan 1-5, Sherrill 0-1, Zeglinski 0-4), Duke 4-14 (Singler 2-3, Smith 1-4, Scheyer 1-6, Dawkins 0-1). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Virginia 37 (Scott 11), Duke 39 (Singler 11). Assists—Virginia 10 (Farrakhan 4), Duke 6 (Scheyer 3). Total Fouls—Virginia 17, Duke 15. A—NA.