RICHMOND, Va. -- Elton Brown couldn't believe his eyes. Trip after trip down the court, his blocking-out on defense came with no reward on the boards.
It wasn't that Auburn had a height advantage -- its tallest starter peaks three inches below the 6-foot-9-inch Brown. What the Tigers had was more commanding than a few inches: They were hitting threes with accuracy so fluid that the twine looked primed to wear out by night's end.
"I've never played a team that just constantly hit threes like that," Brown said. "I've played against Duke and they're great three point shooters, but man, [Auburn] just didn't miss."
Led by freshman guard Toney Douglas' 33 points, including 5-9 from three, the Tigers (5-1) shot 8-13 from behind the arc in the first half and seemed to have the concrete set to put together an upset of No. 24 Virginia.
But luckily for the Cavaliers (6-0), they had their own trio of hot hands who helped them claim their sixth-straight victory, an 89-87 stretch over Auburn Friday at the Siegel Center in Richmond.
Freshman point guard Sean Singletary led Virginia with 25 points, including 15 in the second half. The 6-footer scrambled like a mouse on defense, adding two blocks and seven rebounds to his line -- only one board less than the team leader and three more than Brown. Singletary's weakness came on the defensive end, as he was unable to contain Douglas in his second 30-point game of the season.
Guards Nathan Watson and Ronny LeMelle also added 15 apiece for the Tigers.
"We had trouble guarding them man-to-man with our two big guys; we went zone and they carved up the zone," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "We're fortunate that offensively we were able to score because we couldn't stop them."
Both teams shot more than 50 percent from the field and nearly 50 percent from three in a contest that was offensively-charged and poles apart from Virginia's 48-44 lackluster win at Northwestern Wednesday.
The Cavaliers gave up as many points to the Tigers in the first half as they gave up to Northwestern in the entire 40 minutes of play.
Forward Devin Smith contributed 23 points and eight rebounds for Virginia. Late in the second half with the Cavaliers ahead by one, Brown drove baseline and delivered a bounce pass to the left corner for Smith, who drained a three to make it a two-possession game.
J.R. Reynolds had five assists and 12 points for the Cavaliers, including three clutch free throws in the game's final 30 seconds. Brown also added 17 points.
The Tigers' Ian Young was at the line shooting two with 3.8 seconds remaining and Auburn down 89-84. After making the first, Young missed the second, but the Tigers retrieved the offensive rebound. Auburn forward Quinnel Brown laid the ball up and in and was fouled on the play, cutting Virginia's lead to two points with 1.7 seconds left. Quinnel Brown missed the free throw, but Auburn was unable to rebound and the ball was tipped to half-court as time expired.
"We made mistakes, which I was upset about," Gillen said. "We still had some young guys who were celebrating when the game wasn't quite over. We made some foolish mistakes, and we need to learn from them."
Virginia surged out of the opening tip for an early 11-0 lead two minutes in and amassed that lead to 17-3 by the 15-minute mark, but the Tigers went on a 19-5 run over the next four minutes to tie the score at 22 midway through the first half. Auburn added another small run late in the half to take a 44-38 lead into the break.
"We faced adversity," Gillen said. "Our guys got a little flustered, but we hung in there, dug down and were able to find a way to win."
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