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Cavaliers Fall in Overtime to Virginia Tech 76-71
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -Malcolm Delaney scored 27 points and Virginia Tech beat Virginia 76-71 in overtime Thursday night after a desperation 3-pointer forced the OT.
The Hokies (16-3, 3-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) trailed 62-52 with 3:44 left in regulation before scoring the next 13 points. Sammy Zeglinski made a contested 25-footer for Virginia (12-6, 3-2) as the clock raced toward 0:00 in regulation, tying the game at 65-65.
Virginia Tech scored the first five points in the overtime period and after that Virginia never got closer than two points.
The Cavaliers led by 12 (22-10) with 5:28 left in the first half, but the Hokies outscored UVa 18-5 the rest of the half to take a 28-27 halftime lead.
Dorenzo Hudson added 18 points and JT Thompson had 17 points and seven rebounds for the Hokies. Thompson scored all but two of his points in the second half and overtime, and also made a key defensive play.
“That was just a really good basketball game,” Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said. “That is the only way to describe it. Both teams competed at a high level. I was very proud of our resilience – I was really proud of how tough we were defensively. I was very proud of the pace we ran our offense and our toughness. We are a good team when we get stops. We had so many guys step up. Erick Green did a nice job for us on offense when Malcolm (Delaney) was off the ball. JT Thompson was so tough and – I guess determined. It was so good to see him play that way – it’s a piece we have been missing.”
Mike Scott led Virginia with 21 points and eight rebounds, and Sylven Landesberg had 18 points, five assists and four rebounds. Landesberg is the only player in the ACC to score in double figures in every game this season and is also the only player to score at least 18 points in each of his ACC games.
Scott’s 21 points are a personal ACC career high.
Jeff Jones added 12 points for the Cavaliers and Jerome Meyinsse scored an ACC career-high nine points, had four rebounds and blocked two shots. Zeglinski also finished with nine points.
Virginia head coach Tony Bennett was asked about Virginia’s lack of scoring in the final minutes of regulation.
“I thought we played so hard, and we always talk about hard and smart together,” Bennett said. “We were pretty solid with our decision making up until that point and then there were some breakdowns. We could have run some clock. Jeff got a wide open look. He had hit one and it would have been a time to run some clock. We left a guy unguarded in transition, two turnovers and the out of bounds plays, fouling Delaney—there were just some things where I thought our execution and just making some sound decisions hurt us.”
Virginia shot 43.9 percent (25-57) from the field, including 31.6 percent (6-19) from three-point range, and 68.2 percent (15-22) from the free-throw line. Virginia Tech shot 45.2 percent (28-62) from the field, including 33.3 percent (4-12) from three-point range, and 80 percent (16-20) from the free-throw line. The Hokies out-rebounded the Cavaliers 39-34 and UVa tied its season-high with 16 turnovers.
The loss broke a seven-game win streak at John Paul Jones Arena for the Cavaliers.