Sometimes a little home cooking is just the trick you need -- that proved to be exactly the case last night for the Virginia men's basketball team. The Cavaliers got back to their winning ways with an easy victory over the Longwood Lancers, 90-49. The Cavaliers opened up with 22 points in the first six minutes and then switched on cruise control for the rest of the game.
Virginia blew away Longwood in front of a sparse crowd at John Paul Jones Arena. Junior guard Sean Singletary led the way for the Cavaliers. The star point guard had no trouble finding his groove early on, as he drained four three-pointers within the first eight minutes of the game. He finished with 19 points and 7 assists. Senior guard J.R. Reynolds continued his great play as he added 11 points in 25 minutes of action.
"Coming off that game they [Virginia] played Saturday down at Virginia Tech, and there's no surprise that Singletary and Reynolds set the tone for the whole game," Longwood coach Mike Gillian said.
The Cavaliers led by at least 20 points for most of the game and received big contributions from just about every player. Five different Cavaliers scored in double figures- including sophomore forward Laurynas Mikalauskas who added 12 points and six rebounds. Sophomore forward Mamadi Diane erased his shooting woes from Saturday and scored 13 points on 62 percent shooting from the field. Additionally, senior forward Jason Cain, junior center Tunji Soroye and Mikalauskas established a marquee low post presence that frustrated the Lancers defensively and allowed for many easy baskets.
"Based on what happened last Saturday I wanted to get back to playing basketball the way we have wanted to all along," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "The most difficult thing was to get the guys to not watch the scoreboard and to concentrate on the game."
The first half went just about as well as Virginia could have hoped for. Singletary and Reynolds pushed the pace and helped Virginia jump out to an early 12-0 lead in the first two minutes. The backcourt duo kept up the pressure on the offensive end as the Cavaliers maintained a 20 point lead for much of the first half. Mikalauskas added a fitting end to the first half as he slammed down a wide open dunk with one minute to go. Seconds later, Mikalauskas tipped in a three point attempt from Singletary that barely missed. The first half ended with a score of 53-29, a 24-point lead in favor of Virginia. Singletary and Diane led the way with 14 and 11 points respectively.
The second half started in much the same way, with a number of easy Virginia baskets. In the second half Longwood was able to keep pace with Virginia, at least to start with. The Lancers were able to get a number of quick points and had 44 points with almost 10 minutes left, but Virginia cut off the Lancers' run and held them to five points for the rest of the game.
With eight minutes left in the game Virginia increased its lead to 31 points and coasted to an easy victory from there. Freshman forward Andy Burns, a fan favorite, put the exclamation point on the night at the tail end of the game. Burns sent the crowd at JPJ to its feet as he knocked down his first collegiate three-pointer with one minute left in the game.
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