It seemed like yet another ACC defeat for the Virginia men’s basketball team was inevitable last night, as the Cavaliers went into the locker room at halftime down 42-22 to visiting Boston College. Then Virginia coach Dave Leitao made an executive decision — that fell just a bit short.
He opened the second half with all but one of his starters — freshman guard Sylven Landesberg — on the bench, while junior guard Calvin Baker, sophomore guard Jeff Jones, junior forward Solomon Tat and freshman center Assane Sene ran the Cavaliers’ attack. Although the decision still was not enough to earn a victory, as Virginia fell 80-70 to the Eagles, it did result in an improved level of play from Leitao’s young team.
The Virginia coach said he had a simple method for deciding which five guys would start the second half for the Cavaliers.
“[I opened the second half with the] five guys that I thought would play with the most energy,” Leitao said.
The move worked for Leitao and the Cavaliers, as they were able to cut the Eagles’ lead to nine with just less than nine minutes to play in the second half.
Leitao wanted energy from his five guys on the court, and that’s what he got from his struggling squad. Virginia could not get over the hump, however, as it was never able to cut the deficit to less than seven points.
“They played the whole half,” Leitao said. “It wasn’t fatigue, and they were more energized than we were in the first half.”
Just as in past ACC games, though, Virginia went with a zone look in the second half. Unlike in past conference losses, however, this time the formation yielded impressive results, as the squad was able to hold the Eagles to just 36 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes of play.
“They were a little bit more bouncy [in the second half],” Leitao said. “I thought [the zone] caught our opponent a little bit off guard.”
It would be difficult to argue with Leitao for making the second half change after his starters — Landesberg, freshman guard Sammy Zeglinski, senior guard Mamadi Diane, sophomore forward Mike Scott and junior forward Jamil Tucker — were having trouble getting the job done on both ends of the court against Boston College. Virginia made only six of its first 28 field goal attempts in the first half — including a zero for seven from three-point range — while allowing the Eagles to shoot 68.2 percent from the field.
While the Cavaliers were only down 10-9 with 14:36 left in the first half, a 19-2 Boston College run during the next nine minutes hurt Virginia’s chances of stopping its recent six-game losing streak and even caused some Virginia fans to boo when Leitao called a 30-second time out with 5:29 left to play before the break.
Sene believes the poor start had to do with the team simply not doing what it was supposed to do.
“[During] the first half, we didn’t execute well — we were down by 20,” Sene said. “It’s not easy, especially against ACC teams, to come back.”
Landesberg, who played nearly the entire game for the Cavaliers, tried his best to help the Cavaliers back into contention. He scored 26 of his career-high 32 points during the second half.
Following the game, Landesberg mentioned that the team’s recent slow starts were on the minds of all of the players entering last night’s game, even though it did not prevent them from letting it happen again.
“We were all saying before the game of how we are tired of having to come back in the second half from a huge deficit in the first half,” Landesberg said.
With the Cavaliers performing better in the second half, Leitao has considered changing the starting lineup in preparation for Saturday’s game against North Carolina.
“I’ll look at it [today] after I get a chance to talk about with the staff and review film and that kind of thing,” Leitao said.
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