Virginia could not carry the momentum from its regular-season ending victory against Maryland and fell to Boston College 76-63 in the first round of the ACC Tournament last night in Atlanta, Georgia — an outcome that made former Boston College quarterback and current Atlanta Falcon Matt Ryan, who was in attendance at the game, happy.
“It’s always difficult to end a season,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “Not many people walk away from competition happy.”
Virginia’s tendency to foul the Eagles hurt it early on in the game, especially in the opening half. The Cavaliers (4-13, 10-19) committed five fouls in the first 4:23 of the game, and Boston College (10-7, 23-10) went to line 10 times in the first half alone. On the flip side, Virginia was hardly as successful from the charity stripe, as the team only converted two of nine free throws in the opening period.
“Usually fouls are a result of a team coming after you and I think [Boston College] does that,” Leitao said. “We committed 28 fouls today, which is a lot, and that’s a byproduct of not being ready as much as you need to be.”
Virginia also struggled with several other aspects of its game. On offense, Boston College got 24 of its 37 first half points in the paint and scored 36 points total in that area. On the boards, the Cavaliers allowed Boston College to grab 34 rebounds during the game.
“We were a step slow in a lot of different areas, whether it was rebounding, rotations defensively, or execution offensively,” Leitao said.
After the 12:00 media timeout, Virginia was only down 16-13 with junior forward Mike Scott at the free throw line to attempt and convert a three-point play. Scott missed, however, and Boston College proceeded to go on a 13-2 run to make it 29-15. Virginia, however, had their own 7-0 run to make it a 29-22 game, as senior forward Mamadi Diane and sophomore guard Mustapha Farrakhan each made three-pointers and freshman guard Sylven Landesberg converted on a free throw.
Virginia, however, could not take advantage and the Eagles made it a 37-25 advantage at the half.
“We weren’t the most aggressive team,” Leitao said. “We weren’t the first boxer in the ring punching.”
Sophomore guard Rhakim Sanders stepped up for the Eagles. Sanders scored 25 points — including 13 in the first half — and also contributed 7 rebounds.
“He’s big, strong, can shoot, get to the basket, and he made some good plays today,” Virginia junior guard Calvin Baker said about Sanders. “He offensively rebounded very well and got to the line and he just had a really good game.
Unlike other games in which Virginia was able to make pick up the pace after a lackluster first half, Virginia was never fully able to make it a game. Virginia was only down 65-57 with just under 3:00 left, but it was unable cut the lead any further than that.
Diane had a solid performance in his final performance in a Cavalier uniform. Diane eclipsed the 1,000 point barrier and contributed 24 points. He left the game with 42.6 seconds remaining to a standing ovation from the Virginia fans in attendance.
“I’m very proud of his performance,” Leitao said. “Not just the fact that he scored the ball, but I thought his overall game was very good.”
After the game, Diane reflected on his four years spent in the Virginia basketball program.
“Its very tough to swallow [not playing for Virginia anymore],” Diane said. “I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve had here — good and bad — its all been great and it’s really made me a man.”
The loss signaled the end of a frustrating season for Virginia as it struggled during ACC play and failed to play consistent basketball all season long.
“At 10-18, I don’t think we’ve obviously played our best basketball,” Leitao said. “There are some obvious reasons for that and some that we have to continue to figure out.”
Boston College will next face Duke tonight at 9:30. In other ACC tournament action, No. 8 Virginia Tech defeated No. 9 Miami 65-47 in a bubble-buster game and will now take on top seed North Carolina at 12:00, No. 12 Georgia Tech upset No. 5 Clemson 86-81 to earn the right to play No. 4 Florida State at 2:30 and No. 7 Maryland earned a must-win victory against N.C State 74-69 and has No. 2 Wake Forest next at 7:00.
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