Wednesday evening saw the Virginia Cavaliers take on the Northwestern Wildcats as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. After a somewhat sloppy first half the Cavaliers made the proper adjustments at halftime and came away with a 72-57 victory in University Hall.
Coming into tonight's matchup with the Wildcats there was a distinct advantage for the Hoos on the perimeter and when the final buzzer sounded Bill Carmody's squad had seen enough of Virgina's sophomore point guard Sean Singletary. Slowed by foul trouble in the first half Singletary came out and displayed why he's one of the ACC's best players. The Philadelphia native dropped 23 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and handed out 3 assists on the night. Some of the moves he made along the way drew some ooohs and ahhhs from the Cavalier faithful.
Junior shooting guard J.R. Reynolds bounced back from a subpar performance against Arizona on Sunday and chipped in with 13 points with most of his points coming from taking his man off the dribble and creating his own shot. Stepping it up for the Hoos tonight as well was freshman Mamadi Diane who had a really outstanding performance with 18 points and 5 rebounds. Diane also provided some tenacious defense on the Wildcats' leading scorer Verdran Vukusic. Vukusic still managed to score 21 points but he had to work for each and every bucket on Dave Leitao's bunch tonight.
Afterwards we caught up with "Mo" about the team's performance. He had this to say about his guarding Vukusic, "I was really well prepared to guard him. In practice we simulated it pretty well with Jason Cain playing as Vukusic being that he's about the same height but Cain is probably better athletically. So I was ready."
Also making solid contributions to the victory were Adrian Joseph and Jason Cain. Joseph started in place of Laurynas Mikalauskas and ended the evening with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Cain came off the bench to provide some help on the boards pulling down 6 total with 4 of them coming on the offensive end. He also chipped in 3 points as well.
The first half saw the Hoos jump out to an early lead but Carmody's methodical Princeton style offense helped Northwestern climb back into the game and left the Hoos behind at the half 27-26. Dave Leitao and staff made the proper adjustments to slow the Wildcats' easy baskets and Sean Singletary and company started to execute from there. The Hoos' lead swelled to as many as 20 points in the second half and the victory pushed the team's record to 3-1 on the season while Northwestern falls to 3-3.
There will be no rest for the weary as Virginia must now turn their attention to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. After a convincing win over Northwestern Paul Hewitt's Yellow Jackets should provide another early barometer for Dave Leitao's squad. Next Monday night's matchup with Georgia Tech will be coach Leitao's first ACC game and should provide an interesting matchup as both team's lost a considerable amount of their offensive production from last season's squads. We'll take a look at the Yellow Jackets who weren't quite able to upset #14 Michigan State tonight in a 88-86 loss later on this week.
Our HooNation.com player of the game award goes to sophomore point guard Sean Singletary. His absence on the court late in the first half magnifies his importance to Dave Leitao's team. When he returned to the court the team took off offensively again and he helped to lead the Hoos to the win.