After dropping its fourth game in its last five on the road against Florida State Wednesday, the Virginia men's basketball team returns to Charlottesville Sunday afternoon for a matchup with Georgia Tech.
For the second time in three games, Virginia (11-6, 1-3 ACC) was unable to close after it opened up a double-digit lead in the second half against the Seminoles. With the Cavaliers leading 60-53 late in regulation, Virginia went cold, and Florida State went on a 9-0 run to take its first lead since early in the second half on its way to a 69-67 victory.
The game against Florida State "is a very typical game in this league where it comes down to a certain precious few possessions," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "We just had to hold the fort defensively, and rebound, and execute. We didn't do that obviously."
Senior Sean Singletary, meanwhile, had one of his poorest performances of the season. The point guard ended with 11 points, three of which came on a meaningless 3-point field goal as time expired. His 11-point total was his lowest since Dec. 5, when he scored just 10 while battling the flu in a home game against Syracuse.
In addition, Singletary had two costly turnovers -- both steals near the mid-court stripe as the Cavaliers got in their half-court set -- in the final three minutes, which led to 7 Florida State points.
After the game, Singletary was the first to admit the severity of the damage caused by his two late turnovers.
"I was careless with the ball," Singletary said. "That was the story of the game."
Before this game, Singletary had been playing arguably the best basketball of his career. In the three games before Wednesday night's contest, the senior averaged 23.6 points per game, including a season-high 34 in a losing effort to Virginia Tech, and recorded two double-doubles.
Even with Singletary at the top of his game, however, the Cavaliers only managed one win in these three contests due to a lack of support from the team's next three most prominent scorers: senior Adrian Joseph, junior Mamadi Diane and sophomore Calvin Baker. Throughout Virginia's young conference season, Singletary and his supporting cast have not been able to complement each other -- only once have Singletary and the supporting threesome produced good numbers offensively on the same night, when all four players scored at least 15 points in an 84-66 win against Boston College.
In the Cavaliers' three ACC losses, however, either Singletary or his supporting cast has put up good numbers, but not both. In Virginia's most recent loss to the Seminoles, with Singletary playing poorly, the threesome put up a combined 45 of the team's 67 points. In losses to Duke and Virginia Tech, however, with Singletary at his peak, the three averaged a combined 25.5 points per game.
Sunday, Singletary and company will face a Georgia Tech team that has been exceptional of late. The Yellow Jackets have won each of their last two contests, including a 77-74 road win at N.C. State Wednesday. Even in the game before the two-game win streak, Georgia Tech nearly upset then-No. 1 North Carolina in an 83-82 nail-biter.
Though the Yellow Jackets lost their two top scorers from last year in Javaris Crittendon and Thaddeus Young, coach Paul Hewitt has another athletic group this season, led by seniors Anthony Morrow and Jeremis Smith and junior Lewis Clinch, all of whom average double figures in scoring. Smith, a 6-foot-8 forward, also leads Georgia Tech in rebounds per game (7.2) and is second in assists per game (2.2).
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