Only 48 hours after recording one of the most significant victories in the recent history of the men's basketball program, Virginia avoided a letdown on Saturday evening as the Cavaliers beat Miami 81-70.
"In winning the game today, the most satisfactory part of it was how mature we could be off of a very emotional night on Thursday with only a day to prepare," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "We were walking in the building and people were still saying congratulations for Thursday night, but not saying good luck for today. That's what we were dealing with from a mental standpoint. Dealing with success is as delicate as dealing with adversity and that was our chore over the last couple of days."
The win moved Virginia (15-6, 7-2 ACC) into a first place tie with Boston College at the top of the ACC standings. North Carolina stands in second place, a half a game off the pace.
"I think we have to try to embrace it," Leitao said of Virginia's position in the standings. "We have to continue to fight. It's something that this late in the season you can look at as an accomplishment, but the accomplishment that we're really looking for is the one that comes at the end of the season that means that you've had a very good year. This journey is long and it's arduous and we have to do it day by day."
Junior point guard Sean Singletary led the Cavaliers with 22 points, marking the 10th time he has scored 20 or more points in a game this season. Senior shooting guard J.R. Reynolds contributed 18 points while sophomore swingman Mamadi Diane added 14. Freshman swingman Will Harris scored nine points and senior forward Jason Cain totaled eight points and a team-high nine rebounds in the winning effort. Sophomore forward Laurynas Mikalauskas tallied a career-high three assists.
It became clear early on that Virginia had come to play against Miami (9-14, 2-7 ACC) -- the Cavaliers hit five three-pointers in the first six and a half minutes of play.
With just under four minutes remaining in the first half, Diane gave Virginia its largest lead of the half with a three-pointer that put the Cavaliers up 37-20. Virginia led 41-25 at the break.
The Cavaliers would extend their lead before the first media time-out of the second half. Junior center Tunji Soroye then scored only his fourth field goal of the season and Reynolds knocked down a three-pointer to give Virginia an 18-point lead.
As the game wound down, Miami pulled to within 11 points on four separate occasions, but came no closer.
Miami's leading scorer was sophomore guard Jack McClinton, who registered 18 points and drilled four three-pointers. The Hurricanes have now lost six games in a row.
Virginia finished the game with 51 field goal attempts, more than half of which came from three-point range.
"We watched a lot of film and we knew that [Miami] was not going to be denying [our perimeter], so we were going to be comfortable," Singletary, who sank four three-pointers, said. "We took advantage of that early. We got a big lead and once we got into a rhythm, we never looked back."
In the closing minute, walk-ons Andy Burns, Bob McCormick and David Noel received playing time. McCormick scored the first two points of his career by draining two free throws.
The Cavaliers have now matched both their overall and ACC win totals from last season.
Virginia next embarks upon a two-game road trip to Maryland (Tuesday night) and Virginia Tech (Saturday afternoon). Earlier this season, the Cavaliers defeated the Terrapins 103-91 at John Paul Jones Arena.
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