The postseason hopes of the Virginia Cavaliers were given a tremendous boost last night with a 72-58 win over No.11 Boston College (21-6, 8-5 ACC) in the penultimate game at University Hall. The win is the 10th at home on the year for the Cavaliers (14-10, 7-6 ACC) and is the highest-ranked opponent they have beaten this year.
"We beat a very, very good team," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "Not only are they very good, but they were hot. I think that we beat them at the things that they do very well. They are very mentally and physically scrappy and I think we out-scrapped them to the loose balls, the 50-50 balls, setting the tone early."
The first points of the game came from an unlikely source, Virginia center Tunji Soroye. The Nigerian native collected an offensive rebound that resulted from a Sean Singletary miss and then went back to the basket to score the opening points. Soroye, who had six total points, credits early scoring with helping him get into the flow of the game, but said he believes his defensive efforts bring him his focus.
"Yes, part of it" is scoring, he said. "What gets me into the game is my defense. When I had the block [later in the first half] I was more in the game."
With the score tied at 7-7 early in the game, the Cavaliers went on a 24-6 run to take a lead they would not surrender. During the run, Virginia was led by J.R. Reynolds, who had 13 of his game-high 28 points during the span. The junior ignited the streak, scoring the first five points. Reynolds scored on a lay-up to give Virginia a 9-7 lead and then hit a three-point shot on a fast break that ignited the crowd. Reynolds was again able to get the crowd excited when his long three-point attempt hit nothing but net to give the Cavaliers a 31-13 advantage.
"Everything felt good once it left my hands," Reynolds said. "In the second half, I got a little winded, but I was able to get a second wind."
The "second wind" would help as Boston College rallied to cut the halftime deficit to 10 points, 38-28. The Eagles, however, would get no closer. The Cavaliers built their lead to 14 points to open the half, but Boston College was able to chip the lead back down to 10. At that point, Virginia scored six unanswered points, highlighted by a Reynolds fast break dunk, to go up 50-34. The Cavaliers held their largest lead of the night when Singletary hit a wide-open three-point shot with 6:50 remaining to put his team up by 18 points, 61-43.
"That team effort is what makes great teams," Singletary said. "We're not a great team, but we are building toward it."
The team effort was also apparent on defense. The Cavaliers forced Boston College into committing 11 turnovers throughout the game. Virginia also held the Eagles to 35.2 percent shooting. On the season, Boston College is shooting 48.4 percent as a team, good for third in the ACC. Leitao felt playing man-to-man defense helped his team shut down the Eagles.
"We were coming off a game where we played a lot of zone and we didn't play it well," Leitao said. "At times, we played zone today, and we didn't play it all that well. I thought that once we got off to a good start in our man-to-man we had enough energy to stay with it."
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