Blue Devils romp, roll

DURHAM, N.C. — Due to a quirk in the schedule, Virginia had eight days off heading into Sunday afternoon’s game at No. 1-ranked Duke.

That meant eight days to prepare for the Blue Devils’ pressure defense. Eight days to find a way to make more than the three first field goals they had against Florida State last Saturday. Eight days to figure out a way to cut down on all the turnovers that have plagued them during their four-game losing streak.

Well, the Cavaliers could have had 365 days of preparation and it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

Duke, behind 18 points and four assists from Gerald Henderson, treated the visiting Wahoos like their kid brother — intimidating, dominating and thrashing UVa to the tune of a 79-54 rout in front of 9,314 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I said it during the first T.V. timeout,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao, referring to a conversation with his players, “that the things we talked about and the things we were executing and preparing for in practice every day really didn’t show itself at all — really at any point in time during the game.”

Virginia (7-10, 1-5) will now try and break a

five-game losing streak when it hosts Boston College on Wednesday night. If the Wahoos play like they have in their last couple, they won’t have much of a chance.

From the opening jump, the Blue Devils (19-2, 6-1)  — who were coming off a loss to No. 4 Wake Forest on Wednesday — looked like a team with something to prove.

Meanwhile, Virginia looked like the timid teenager at the high school dance who doesn’t want to talk to the pretty girl.

UVa committed six turnovers in its first eight possessions, a span of just 4 minutes and 11 seconds.

“We knew they were coming off a loss and would just come at us and try and end the game early,” said Virginia freshman Sammy Zeglinski, who finished with eight points and five assists. “We knew they would pressure us like that, but a lot of times we just broke out of our offense and were careless with the ball.”

Things didn’t get any better after that first television timeout.

Mamadi Diane (0 points, three turnovers) immediately committed an offensive foul. Mike Scott, Mustapha Farrakhan, Jeff Jones and Calvin Baker all followed with turnovers of their own.

Before Duke fans even had the chance to get into their famed taunting, Virginia found itself down 34-12 following a breakaway dunk by Henderson.

UVa had 17 first-half turnovers and trailed 43-21 at the break.

“Obviously during this [losing] stretch we’ve gotten down by double figures and have had to climb out of a hole,” Leitao said, “and you’re not going to do that on the road very much or against good teams very much.”

Sylven Landesberg, who had been struggling in ACC play, was one of Virginia’s few bright spots. The freshman led all scorers with 20 points. However, he had five turnovers, including four in the first four minutes, two of which were offensive fouls.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said drawing charges on Landesberg was part of his team’s gameplan.

“He’s a driver,” Krzyzewski said. “The thing we didn’t want to do — is the guy who was guarding him to foul.

“As long as you don’t foul him, you have a chance to get a charge…we drew some really good charges today.”

Landesberg joked about Duke’s defense.

“They’re good actors out there,” said Landesberg, when asked if Duke’s flopping was everything he had heard about, “but seriously their defense is very tough and they’re always in the right position. That just comes from good coaching.”

Landesberg was one of three Virginia freshmen making his Cameron debut. He said the whole team may have come out of the gate a little too excited.

“I think we might have had too much intensity,” he said. “We were making a lot of mistakes early on and just making a lot of bad passes that led to turnovers and I don’t think our defense was too sharp to begin with.

“I think we might have been too amped up to play. The second half we came out with more poise.”

Of course, that was against the likes of Duke freshmen Elliot Williams, Miles Plumlee and Olek Czyz, along with sophomore walk-on Steve Johnson, whom Krzyzewski only put in the game because it was his birthday — something the Cameron fans reminded him of repeatedly in the last few minutes.

“The second half we played a lot better,” Zeglinski said, “but the game was out of reach by halftime.”

Dunks

Virginia finished with a season-high 23 turnovers. … Sylven Landesberg broke Ralph Sampson’s record for most 20-point games by a freshman. He now has 10… Mike Scott (10 points, four rebounds) had to leave the game in the second half with cramps. Scott said that his entire body, including his arms, cramped up. “I just need to do a better job of getting more fluids,” he said. …Sammy Zeglinski wore the uniform No. 1 in the second half. He said he switched at the request of the referees who noticed that his usual jersey had ripped.