Gary Forbes and Sean Singletary sat at the head of the Virginia bench, their arms locked and their fists clenched.
It was double overtime. Both had fouled out minutes earlier, and with 19 seconds left and the Cavaliers down by two, they huddled together to watch Elton Brown, their captain, try to knot things up again at the free throw line.
The first one went up -- off the back of the rim -- too hard. Then the second was on its way. Slowly the ball crept toward the basket. It hit nothing but net -- the bottom of the net -- air ball.
Forbes and Singletary and much of the rest of the Virginia bench draped their towels over their faces and hung their heads in their hands. After sticking even for more than 45 minutes of play, the Cavaliers finally fell to Maryland in double overtime Saturday afternoon, 92-89.
Brown's woes at the charity stripe were the story of the game for Virginia (13-11, 4-9 ACC). The Cavaliers made only 12 of 27 free throws, and Brown contributed 10 of those 15 misses.
"As hard as we played and as courageous as we played, you got to make free throws to win," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "You got to rebound, make free throws, [and] take care of the ball. Twelve for 27 -- if that's how poorly you shoot, then all the good things unfortunately are hurt by that stat."
Forbes and Singletary together set the stage for the final overtime period. Virginia inbounded the ball with 19 seconds left in regulation and worked it to Devin Smith in the left corner. Smith didn't have a good look, so he sent a pass to Forbes, who spotted up at the upper left-hand side of the key for the game-tying 3-pointer with four seconds to go.
Then in the first overtime, the Cavaliers battled back from a seven-point deficit with two minutes to go, culminating when Singletary hit a three from near the top of the key to tie the game at 82 apiece with 20 seconds left. Maryland's John Gilchrist brought the ball up, but wasted time trying to create a play and turned the ball over with one-tenth of a second left.
Terrapins forward Travis Garrison was a big part of Maryland's overtime surge. Garrison scored 11 of his 20 points in the overtime sessions to lead the Terrapins down low.
"We weren't going to win unless we got the ball inside, and we did that in the last five minutes of regulation and in both overtimes," said Maryland coach Gary Williams, whose team moved to 16-8 overall and 7-6 in the conference with the win.
Gilchrist led the Terrapins in scoring with 22 points. He added nine rebounds. Nik Caner-Medley finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Chris McCray put in 13 and seven.
Singletary finished with 23 points, nine assists and only one turnover. Forbes contributed 17 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Smith added 22 points and eight rebounds for the Cavaliers, and Brown threw in a double-double with 13 and 12.
Sophomore T.J. Bannister shared point guard duties with Singletary, dishing out seven assists while committing only three turnovers. The Cavaliers had only 13 turnovers on the night, but the final one was the costliest.
Virginia was inbounding the ball near midcourt with just over a minute left in the second overtime. A missed Elton Brown screen on Chris McCray botched the inbounds play and left J.R. Reynolds with nowhere to throw the ball. He finally pitched it to Brown, who dropped the pass.
"We came back every time, we had the game right there to win, we just didn't knock down our free throws and didn't get the loose balls like we should have," Singletary said. "It's the little things like that that in the main scheme of things are real big. We didn't do the little things and that's why we lost."
Brown was unavailable for comment after the game.
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