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CHARLOTTESVILLEThe Virginia men’s basketball team opens the Atlantic Coast Conference portion of its schedule on Sunday (Jan. 13) when the Cavaliers play at Duke. The game is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. and will be televised by Fox Sports Net.
The game will also be on V Pass Live Audio at virginiasports.com.
Virginia is coming off a 108-70 loss at Xavier on Jan. 3 that snapped a four-game winning streak. The Cavaliers will look to bounce back from that defeat at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, a venue where they haven’t won since a 91-88 double overtime victory in 1995.
UVa enters the game with an overall record of 10-3, while Duke is 12-1 including a 7-0 record at home.
Senior guard Sean Singletary leads the Cavaliers with averages of 17.8 points and 6.8 assists a game. Singletary led the team with 14 points and seven assists in the loss at Xavier.
Senior forward Adrian Joseph is averaging 12.6 points a game and leads Virginia with an average of 7.7 rebounds a game. Junior forward/guard Mamadi Diane is averaging 11.4 points a game and is shooting 50.9 percent (28-55) from three-point range.
As a team, the Cavaliers are averaging 80.4 points a game while allowing an average of 69.0 points a game. Virginia is out-rebounding its opponents by an average of 12.4 rebounds a game. Xavier was just the second team to out-rebound UVa this season.
Duke has five players averaging in double figures in scoring led by senior guard DeMarcus Nelson at 13.7 points a game. The other players averaging in double figures in scoring for the Blue Devils are freshman forward Kyle Singler (13.0 ppg.), sophomore guard/forward Gerald Henderson (12.6 ppg.), sophomore guard Jon Scheyer (10.6 ppg.) and freshman forward Taylor King (10.2 ppg.). Junior guard Greg Paulus is averaging 9.1 points a game and leads Duke with an average of 3.7 assists a game.
Nelson and Singler are the Blue Devils’ leading rebounders. Nelson is averaging 6.4 rebounds a game and Singler is averaging 6.1 rebounds a game.
Freshman guard Nolan Smith is averaging 5.9 points a game for Duke.
“Josh McRoberts is gone, but Duke has a lot of the same personnel from last season because they were young last year,” said Virginia head coach Dave Leitao. “Duke has some stability in the backcourt because Paulus is now a junior. I think he’s turned the corner and is playing well. He has confidence and his team has confidence in him. They’ve added some terrific players in Smith, Singler and King. The combination of maturity and youth has deepened their bench.
“They’re scoring the basketball the way they have in the past, averaging 85 or 86 points a game, while not losing anything on the defensive end and that has really helped them. It obviously presents quite a challenge to know you’re going to face a very good defensive team while at the same point and time they’re going to be, and always have been, in attack mode this year trying to create advantages on the offensive end.”
Mike Krzyzewski is in his 28th year as Duke’s head coach and his Duke teams have compiled an overall record of 714-203.
Virginia defeated Duke 68-66 in overtime at John Paul Jones Arena in the only game between the two teams last season, but the Blue Devils lead the series with the Cavaliers 107-48. UVa’s win last season broke a nine-game Duke winning streak in the series. Duke has won 46 of the 54 games between the two teams at Cameron Indoor Stadium.