/
.
Cavaliers Top Wildcats In ACC/Big Ten Challenge, 72-57
Story Links
Nov. 30, 2005
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) – Sean Singletary scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half Wednesday night and sparked a 24-9 run just after the intermission as Virginia beat Northwestern 72-57 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
The Cavaliers (3-1) trailed 27-26 at halftime, but Singletary had a 3-pointer and three-point play in the first 1:20 of the second half to start the burst. He added two more 3-pointers and Mamadi Diane capped the run with another for the Cavaliers.
Northwestern (3-3), which lost 48-44 on its home floor to Virginia last year, got 21 points from Vedran Vukusic and 13 from Tim Doyle. The Wildcats, however, missed their first 15 3-point shots and finished just 3-for-22 from behind the arc.
Virginia hit eight 3-pointers, with Singletary getting four after halftime. Reynolds added 13 points and Diane, a freshman, and Adrian Joseph had 10 each for Virginia.
The Cavaliers, with only seven recruited scholarship players available, got into serious foul trouble in the first half as Singletary, Diane, Tunji Soroye and Laurynas Mikalauskas were whistled for two fouls each. That caused coach Dave Leitao to use walk-on Billy Campbell, who hit one of Virginia’s two 3-pointers in the half.
But Northwestern, which was 0-for-9 from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes, continued to rely almost entirely on Vukusic until he drew his fourth foul with 11 minutes left. By then, the Cavaliers’ lead was 47-36 and they weren’t threatened.
Virginia scored the last five points of the first half, but the burst followed a 15-2 run by the Wildcats over 8 minutes and Northwestern led 27-26 at the break.
Vukusic had six of his 14 points in the run for the Wildcats, and 5-foot-9 Michael Jenkins had five, including a steal, layup, three-point play and a slap on a loose ball that kept it alive in Northwestern’s end, leading to Doyle’s driving layup.