Going into Saturday's exhibition opener against the London Leopards, the Virginia men's basketball team seemed ready to start off the new season with a bang. But soft defense and poor shooting by the Cavaliers gave the British professional team an opportunity to pull a shocker. With a three-pointer at the buzzer, the Leopards downed the Cavs, 89-88.
With two seconds left, London guard Jason Kimbrough caught the inbound pass off a set play and launched a desperation three-pointer over the out-stretched arm of Virginia's Roger Mason Jr. The buzzer sounded just as the ball fell in, leaving the Leopards in jubilation and the Cavs with some big questions.
"We thought we could turn it on and turn it off," Cavalier coach Pete Gillen said dejectedly. "Maybe we thought we could just outscore people, which we can't do. We've got to defend, too."
The Cavs came out energetic and hungry in the first half. Four and a half minutes into the game, junior swingman Adam Hall's fast-break alley-oop dunk put the Cavaliers up 18-9.
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But despite the fast start, Virginia never put the game out of reach. The teams played even the rest of the half, which ended with the Cavs up 53-44.
The second half was a nightmare for the Cavaliers. London began to sit back in a zone defense, which exposed the Cavs' weak outside shooting and held them to only 35 second-half points. Virginia shot only 31 percent and missed its nine three-point attempts in the half.
At 7:32 left in the game, London took a 67-66 lead, following a 10-minute stretch in which the Cavs scored only five points.
Virginia picked up the intensity and battled back to take a two-point lead when senior point guard Donald Hand hit one of two free throws with 8.5 seconds left. The Leopards had a chance at a game-tying layup, but Cavalier big man Travis Watson swatted the shot out of bounds, leaving just enough time for Kimbrough's game-winner.
Few Cavs played particularly well, but Hand, Virginia's point guard and co-captain, especially struggled. The 5-foot-11 senior finished second on the team last year with 15.0 points per game, but Saturday he missed all five of his three-pointers and s cored only 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting. Hand, who admitted he "didn't play that well," also missed two of four crucial free throws in the final minute.
"When your point guard is not in sync, it's hard for your team to be in sync," Gillen said. "I'm not blaming it just on him - we were bad in everything. But you've got to get direction from your senior guy."
Yet the Cavaliers' offensive problems cannot be attributed solely to Hand. No Cav other than Mason (3-for-13, 17 points) made a three-pointer and even he did not hit a shot in the second half. The team as a whole missed 15 of 17 three-point attempts and only managed to make four jump shots outside of 10 feet.
Virginia sorely missed three-point specialist Keith Friel, who was out with a sprained left ankle. Friel expects to be back in time for the next exhibition game Nov. 12 against the Nantucket Nectars.
For all the shooting woes, Virginia was most troubled by its weak defensive effort.
"We didn't play hard," Hall said. "I can understand missing shots, but there's no excuse for not playing defense."
On the bright side, Watson led the Cavs with 21 points and 13 rebounds. The 6-foot-8 bruiser worked hard over the summer to improve his offensive game and it paid off tonight, most noticeably in his feathery touch on short jumpers and his more polished moves with his back to the basket.
While the Cavs may not have played up to their potential, Gillen said the loss can serve as a lesson in focus and consistency.
"It was justice that we lost," Gillen said. "You have to learn the hard way"
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