RALEIGH, N.C. -- With Virginia trailing 66-64 with 3.2 seconds left, N.C. State guard Engin Atsur missed the front end of a one-and-one and Virginia forward Jason Cain pulled down the rebound and quickly got the ball to point guard Sean Singletary. The sophomore drove down the court and released a shot from at least 10 feet behind the three-point line as the buzzer sounded. For just a split second, it looked as if Singletary's shot would go in and give Virginia a huge road win. Then reality hit as Singletary's shot clanked off the back left of the rim and the Cavaliers were forced to come to grips with a heartbreaking 66-64 loss to No. 18 N.C. State in Raleigh.
"I thought it was definitely going in," Singletary said. "But you can't put everything you did over the last 39 minutes and 59 seconds into one shot."
The Cavaliers (10-8, 4-4 ACC) once again got off to an extremely slow start, falling behind 14-2 just over five minutes into the first half. Freshman Laurynas Mikalauskas then tapped in a rebound off his own missed shot and Singletary knocked down two straight buckets to cut N.C. State's lead to six. Junior guard J.R. Reynolds scored eight of his 16 points in the first half to keep Virginia within shouting distance of the Wolfpack. With 33 seconds remaining in the half, Reynolds hit freshman Mamadi Diane for an alley-oop dunk to bring the Cavaliers within three, 29-26, at the half.
The Cavaliers continued to battle hard in the early minutes of the second half, but could not completely close the gap until a Singletary lay-up gave Virginia its first lead of the game, 53-52, with 7:44 remaining. Diane then gave the Cavaliers a three-point lead by swishing a jumper off an assist from Singletary.
"We didn't come into this game with a lot of energy but we were able to regain our focus and execute a little bit," Singletary said.
Whenever it looked as if Virginia might have an opportunity to take control of the game, N.C. State was able to hit a big shot and negate any Virginia momentum. A Mikalauskas basket gave Virginia its biggest lead of the game, 61-57, with 3:37 remaining. The Wolfpack responded with a lay-up by senior Ilian Evtimov. Reynolds then converted one of two free throw attempts but Evtimov tied the game at 62 with a huge three-pointer. Senior Cameron Bennerman gave N.C. State a 64-62 lead on a lay-up and the Wolfpack regained possession of the ball after Reynolds missed a three-point attempt. Evtimov found Atsur wide open underneath the basket off a backdoor cut and the Wolfpack led 66-62 with 38 seconds remaining.
"We had poor execution tonight," Leitao said. "Back-door cuts, post-ups, it was just a lack of execution."
Sophomore Adrian Joseph tipped in a rebound of a missed shot by Reynolds with four seconds remaining to bring Virginia within two. Diane then fouled Atsur on the inbounds play, setting the stage for Atsur's missed free throw and Singletary's desperation heave.
Senior Tony Bethel led the Wolfpack in scoring with 16 points. Sophomore big man Cedric Simmons notched 15. He spent much of his night matched up against Mikalauskas.
"I didn't play as well as I wanted too," Mikalauskas, who finished with 10 points, said. Simmons "was posting up very hard and his teammates were always trying to pass him the ball."
Junior guard T.J. Bannister did not play against the Wolfpack due to an unspecified injury, according to Leitao. The Cavaliers play nextSaturday afternoon at home against Wake Forest.
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