After the upset victory against Clemson Sunday, Virginia coach Dave Leitao thanked the fans for the energy and support they provided during the game. Not only did the fans step it up another notch yesterday, the team responded to the fans again, as it played electrifying basketball while defeating arch-rival Virginia Tech 75-61.
“We won the game the way I’ve tried to have the game played since I’ve been here, which is about defense, rebounding, getting out on the break and timely offense,” Leitao said. “Throughout the course of the game, we did that.”
Before the game, the team added a little twist to its pregame entrance. Instead of entering from its normal location, the team walked down to the court from the far right stairway in the student section behind the basket, drawing a wild reaction from students and faculty alike.
“[Director of Operations] Rick Brunson came to me before we were warming up and told me that’s what we were doing,” junior guard Calvin Baker said about the entrance. “I don’t know whose idea it was but I think it was a good idea because it got a lot of the players hyped up.”
Following the script from the Clemson game, the Cavaliers played an inspired first half, as they took a 28-22 lead with 5:52 left in the first half. Even though Virginia Tech tied the score at 29 with 3:45 left in the half, Virginia went on a 10-0 run that changed the complexion of the game.
“[The 10-0 run] was huge,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. “We were playing from behind the whole second half.”
Senior center Tunji Soroje helped fuel the run, something Leitao was happy to see from the big man.
“When we got up 10, a lot of those points came from him,” Leitao said. “It’s great to see that for him; obviously tonight it was great for us as well to get that lead and be able to play off of that in the second half.”
In the second half, two players in particular stepped up their efforts to lead the Cavaliers to victory. Sophomore forward Mike Scott — who was forced to sit out for a majority of the first half when he picked up his second foul after only 7:10 had run off the clock — scored all of his 10 points and grabbed all four rebounds in the second half. Sophomore guard Jeff Jones also rose to the occasion, scoring eight second half points.
“I thought [Mike] had been ready to go psychologically, and he was more upset than I was about playing three minutes and having the early foul trouble; I knew he would give us better effort and be in attack mode in the second half,” Leitao said. “As Jeff is getting more and more comfortable, he’s making more shots and as he makes more shots, obviously it makes us better — because we need to take more shots.”
Even though Virginia freshman guard Sylven Landesberg had an off-night shooting — missing 11 of his 17 shot attempts — he was able to contribute 6 assists to go along with his 19 points.
“That’s the part of his game that is growing,” Greenberg said regarding Sylven’s passing ability. “He’s so good off of the ball screens, he changes speeds and direction so well that you have to commit and try to string him out a little bit and that opens up passing lanes.”
Virginia Tech was forced to play this game without sophomore forward Jeff Allen, who was suspended after recently showing Maryland fans the middle finger. As a result, Leitao took a different approach to his team’s defense — the Cavaliers held Virginia Tech to 37 percent from the field, caused the Hokies to miss nine of their 11 three-point attempts and held sophomore guard Malcolm Delaney to three of 13 shooting from the field.
“In preparation it allowed us to play up more,” Leitao said. “Meaning obviously you have to tag those two shooters [Delaney and senior guard A.D. Vassallo], and you have to be there on the catch, but you can step out one, two, maybe even sometimes three more steps when you hedge people or you help and not know that there’s a guy behind them that could potentially get 20 to 30 points.”
The loss was a critical one for the Hokies, as they can ill-afford to lose to teams below them in the ACC standings if they want to make the NCAA Tournament. Virginia, on the other hand, has another chance to cripple a team on the NCAA Tournament bubble as it travels Saturday to Raleigh to face N.C. State.
“We’re just trying to build as much momentum as we can,” Baker said. “If it means that we have to pop a team’s bubble then that’s what we are going to do.”
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