After a rough start, the Virginia men's basketball team pulled away and shot down Howard last night 92-53. Senior guard Sean Singletary again led the way for Virginia, finishing with 23 points and eight assists while dazzling the crowd with several highlight-reel plays. Junior forward Mamadi Diane added 14 points and sophomore guard Calvin Baker contributed 11 points and five assists. The win improved Virginia's record to 2-0.
"These [early] games become much more of a battle against yourself," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "That is no disrespect to Howard but it's hard to keep your head psychologically in it when you look at the scoreboard. I think as a result of that, we started off really slowly."
To say the first half started slowly for the Cavaliers would be an understatement. Virginia began the game sluggishly and endured several turnovers and sloppy plays. Virginia and Howard played evenly for much of the period, and the Bison even enjoyed a 4-point lead almost 10 minutes into the opening period. Virginia simply was not getting the job done until Leitao shook things up and substituted several players. Freshman forward Mike Scott, freshman guard Sammy Zeglinski and Baker entered the game and provided a spark. Scott quickly put up five points as he put in a hard fought lay-up and knocked down a long-range 3-pointer with seven minutes to go. Just one minute later, freshman guard Jeff Jones made a nice move to the basket and laid the ball in to give Virginia a 29-24 lead. From there, Singletary took charge as he made a series of creative and acrobatic plays. In one instance, Singletary stole the ball, drove coast to coast, laid the ball in and drew a foul. Singletary later completed the 3-point play, giving Virginia a 7-point lead. For the rest of the half, Virginia pulled away. The Cavaliers limited Howard to only 2 points in about the last eight minutes of the half. The Cavs ended the period holding a 41-26 lead, having made six 3-pointers and shot over 40 percent from the 3-point line in the period.
Howard began the second half with a run of its own. The Bison reeled off 11 points in the first five minutes of the period and forced Leitao to make some quick adjustments for Virginia. Those adjustments, however, paid off for the Cavaliers, as they regained control of the game. At the 14:30 mark, Baker drove toward the basket, drew a defender and lofted a perfect alley oop pass to senior forward Adrian Joseph. Joseph grabbed the ball and slammed it home, to the delight of the John Paul Jones Arena crowd. Two minutes later Baker drained a long 3-pointer in the face of a Howard defender. Baker's theatrics gave Virginia a 19-point lead with a little more than 12 minutes to play.
Next it was Diane's turn to get hot. Diane hit three 3-pointers in a span of just a few minutes for Virginia and allowed the Cavs to pull away. The game was all but decided at that point when, with 6:45 remaining in the game, Singletary hit fellow guard Zeglinski as he streaked towards the basket. Zeglinski took the ball and easily scored a wide open layup. The easy basket gave Virginia a 28-point lead, 73-45, and put the game to rest.
"When we walked in here they [Howard's players] were looking around at the facility," Howard coach Gil Jackson said. "Our guys were looking around, so right away that's a problem"
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