With just under five minutes left in the first half, Virginia senior J.R. Reynolds found himself flat on his back after being tripped and fouled by an Albany defender. Nonetheless, Reynolds flung the ball over his head from 15 feet off the backboard straight into the basket. That shot epitomized the Cavaliers' entire afternoon, as No. 4-seeded Virginia dismantled No. 13-seeded Albany 84-57 Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Virginia went to work right from the outset, jumping out to a 17-point lead (21-4) off a slam by senior Jason Cain with 12 minutes left in the first. The real story of the first period, however, was the unreal play of Reynolds. Supposedly bothered all week by an injured hip, Reynolds came out on fire hitting six of his first seven shots. Throughout the half, Reynolds seemingly out-hustled, out-muscled and out-shot the entire Great Dane squad. Reynolds tallied 23 points in the first half. Albany's entire team managed just 25.
"I'm obviously very happy," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "Particularly for [Reynolds] to come back and play the way he is capable of playing. It gives us a chance when he and [junior Sean Singletary] are playing well."
Bucking their trend of slow second half starts, the Cavaliers quickly extended their 20-point lead to 30 in just five minutes, behind Singletary's stellar play. After tallying six assists while getting his teammates involved in the first half, Singletary showed why he was named a first-team All-ACC member in the second. It was Singletary who stretched the Cavalier lead to 60-30 with 15 minutes to play after a transition spin move left the Virginia point guard an easy lay-in.
"We made a point of [coming out strong] at halftime, but we always make a point of it," Singletary said. "That's something we have struggled with this season: consistency. But we did a good job with it today. I think it speaks to our resiliency."
Singletary finished the game with 23 points, nine assists and six rebounds to go along with Reynolds' game-high 28 points.
Throughout, the exceptional play of Albany senior guard Jamar Wilson kept the game from getting out of hand. Wilson's 15 second-half points helped cut Virginia's lead to 20 with five minutes to play. The Great Danes, however, never got any closer, as Virginia stretched its lead to 27 over the final few minutes.
"In the second half, when they started making a run, we just answered," Singletary said. "[Reynolds] hit a big shot. I hit a big shot. We got some big rebounds, and some big stops. We out-hustled them today. We out-energized them."
The focus of Virginia's preparation this past week, Wilson was hounded by multiple Cavalier defenders. Virginia oftentimes double teamed the talented guard coming off screens and forced him to get rid of the ball. The Great Dane workhorse -- and two-time America East player of the year -- still managed 25 well-earned points.
"We really concentrated this week on taking -- what in my estimation is a great player in [Wilson] -- out of the game," Leitao said. "I thought our big guys did a really good job of clogging the lane and making it tough for him."
For its efforts, Virginia earned the school's first NCAA Tournament victory since the 1995 season. The Cavaliers out-rebounded Albany 41-25, including 15-12 on the offensive end. Virginia shot over 50 percent for the game, while holding the Great Danes to 37.9 percent from the field and only 30.8 percent from three.
"The whole week we had been excited for the matchup," Singletary said. "This is the first time [Reynolds] and I have been to the tournament. They have a great player in Wilson. But our whole team was better than their whole team today."
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