Cavs Finish San Juan Shootout With 59-52 Win Over Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
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Dec. 21, 2006
GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico — Adrian Joseph scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead Virginia to a 59-52 victory over Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in the seventh place game at the San Juan Shootout on Thursday (Dec. 21). The victory improves Virginia’s record to 7-3.
A three-point basket by Joseph with 19:09 left in the game gave the Cavaliers the lead for good at 32-30. The basket started Virginia on an 8-0 run that pushed the lead to 37-30 with 17:14 remaining and the Tarzans got no closer than five points the rest of the game. The Cavaliers led by as many as 13 points in the second half.
Puerto-Rico Mayaguez jumped out to a 10-2 lead 3:36 into the game, but Virginia responded with an 18-2 run to take a 20-12 lead with 11:26 left in the first half. The Cavaliers led 29-28 at halftime after the Tarzans scored the last six points of the half.
J.R. Reynolds and Will Harris each scored nine points and had eight rebounds for Virginia, and Laurynas Mikalauskas scored eight points. Sean Singletary scored seven points, grabbed five rebounds and had four assists. Reynolds, who was named to the all-tournament team, led all Virginia players with six assists.
Joseph’s team-leading 10 points marks the first time a Virginia player led the team in scoring with as few as 10 points in a win since March 6, 1982. On that date, three players (Jeff Jones, Tim Mullen and Jimmy Miller) each scored 10 points in the Cavaliers’ 51-49 overtime victory over Wake Forest in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C.
Diego Garcia of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez led all scorers with 16 points and he also had six rebounds. Luis Ramirez added 15 points for the Tarzans.
Virginia out-rebounded Puerto Rico-Mayaguez 47-32, but the Cavaliers turned the ball over 19 times. The Tarzans had 13 turnovers in the game. Virginia shot 42.1 percent (24-57) from the field and limited Puerto Rico-Mayaguez to33.9 percent (19-56) shooting.
With the loss, Puerto Rico-Mayaguez is now 0-9 on the season.
Donte Minter and D.J. Thompson of Appalachian State were the tournament’s co-most valuable players. Other members of the all-tournament team in addition to Reynolds were Derrick Byars (Vanderbilt), Dan Cage (Vanderbilt), Kevin Coble (Northwestern), Nathan Cranford (Appalachian State), Diego Garcia (Puerto Rico-Mayaguez), Luke Nevill (Utah), Mike O’Donnell (Central Florida) and Belton Rivers (Tennessee Tech).
Virginia returns to action on Dec. 28 when the Cavaliers host American at the John Paul Jones Arena.