Seminoles explode past Cavs

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Just after the first television timeout of Tuesday night’s Virginia-Florida State game, UVa coach Dave Leitao — not a guy known for giving positive reinforcement — came bounding onto the court and slapped hands with each of his players as they were heading toward the bench.

Clearly, Leitao was pleased with the way his team had come out of the gates. Virginia looked sharp on defense and was playing with an intensity that had been virtually non-existent during the team’s seven-game losing streak.

Unfortunately for Leitao, those two traits dissipated as the game wore on.

FSU, behind 19 points from star Toney Douglas, 17 points from Uche Echefu and 13 points from Solomon Alabi, used a 12-2 run in the second half to hand Virginia its eighth straight defeat, a 68-57 setback in front of a crowd of 7,921 at the Tucker Center.

“I’m obviously disappointed with the outcome,” said Leitao, whose team has matched the program’s longest losing streak since former coach Jeff Jones’ last season. “I continue to try and find a way to get us back on track and win basketball games.

“You’ve got to be able to look at this game both on film and overall, and have our guys stay the course, understanding that there are certain things we have to continue to do — some a lot better than others in order to get wins.”

Unlike the last couple of games, Virginia players didn’t seem completely discouraged by the loss — even though they did allow FSU to shoot a whopping 71 percent from the field in the second half.

“We came out with more intensity than we’ve ever had,” said Virginia sophomore Mike Scott, who has eight points and nine rebounds. “We had a lot of energy. That’s basically how we got stops.”

Added Sylven Landesberg, who scored a team-high 14 points, but only shot 6 of 19 from the field: “I think in the last few games our defense has been progressing and getting better. We just need to keep working and hopefully getting better.”

For the second straight game, Leitao opened with the undersized but energetic starting lineup of Calvin Baker, Jeff Jones, Solomon Tat, Assane Sene and Landesberg. The unit quickly fell behind, 8-2, and it seemed like it was going to be another one of those games.

However, Virginia (7-13, 1-8) — behind an unlikely contributor in Tunji Soroye — rallied to take a 12-10 lead. Then, after a six-minute stretch in which both teams struggled to make any kind of shot, UVa was able to open up a 19-15 lead on a short Sammy Zeglinski jumper.

FSU (19-5, 6-3) tied the game on a pair of Douglas free throws, but Jeff Jones’ long jumper from the wing as he was being fouled by Douglas with just over a minute left, put Virginia back up by three. The Cavaliers, who led 22-20 at the break, played mostly man-to-man defense, a change from the last few games when Leitao used a 3-2 zone to moderate success.

“We were prepared to do both,” Leitao said. “We played heavy man because man was giving us, especially early, what we ultimately wanted, which is stops.”

The first half was almost an inverse of the first 20 minutes at John Paul Jones Arena last month when FSU held UVa to just three field goals. Virginia held the Seminoles to six field goals and 26 percent shooting.

If UVa could have shot a little better themselves (they shot just 28 percent) and limited its turnovers (they had 10), they might have had a bigger cushion when the second half started.

Nevertheless, there was a good vibe in the locker room.

“We were feeling confident,” Landesberg said. “We kept saying, ‘We’ve got to keep this intensity up.’ We thought we had the game in our hands.”

Virginia started the second half strong, showing some rare resiliency. After a pair of Douglas 3-pointers had put FSU up 40-35, UVa countered with two of its own – the first from Sammy Zeglinski, the second from Scott to reclaim a 41-40 advantage.

However, a Virginia drought — the kind that has become all too common during the losing streak — ensued. After Scott’s trey, UVa scored just one hoop (a Soroye layup) as FSU, behind Douglas, went on a 12-2 run to take a 52-43 lead.

“There was definitely fight in us, but there was fight in them, too,” Landesberg said. “Toney Douglas just made a couple of big-time shots. I thought our defense was in good position. We had a hand in his face. He just knocked them down.”

Leitao, not known for finding silver linings, seemed encouraged by some facets of his team’s play.

“I thought our rotations early on were really good,” he said. “I thought our aggression was really good. I don’t think that our aggression waned very much in the second half, but I thought they executed a whole better and made a whole lot more open shots, and Douglas really took the game over.”

Virginia will hope to build off its performance come Sunday when it hosts Clemson.

“The difficult thing now, or even before, is that you’re facing some of the best teams in the country,” Leitao said. “Your margin of error is razor thin.”