Sene makes strides

For the second straight game, the Virginia player who seemed to play with the most energy and passion was 7-foot freshman Assane Sene. The Senegal native had career highs in rebounds (nine) and blocks (four) in UVa’s 58-56 loss to Auburn on Saturday.

Sene, along with fellow freshman Sylven Landesberg, helped Virginia, momentarily, overcome a 13-point second-half deficit.

Virginia coach Dave Leitao, who likes to praise players after losses about as much as Barack Obama compliments George Bush, was quick to commend Sene.

“It’s just energy,” said Leitao, whose team hosts Hampton on Tuesday before opening its ACC season on Sunday at Georgia Tech. “He plays the game. He’s not perfect. He makes mistakes in not knowing exactly where to be and what to do…but he was the one guy in there rebounding and battling.

“In the second half, he was able to be a presence with his length and his energy, his rebounding, and that’s what we need from him as he continues to get better. I’m sure he’ll do it, and there are other guys we need to have that energy and passion from.”

Sene, who played 22 minutes off the bench, seems to be gaining confidence with every game.

“I feel when I’m on the court is different than when I’m on the bench,” he said, “because sometimes [opponents] don’t go and attack the basket and try and reach rebounds and stuff like that.”

Sene is still a work in progress on the offensive end. In the first half, he missed a wide-open dunk.

“I know I can do better offensively,” Sene said. “When I missed the dunk, I felt so bad because that’s the first time that has happened to me in a game.”

Stop the presses

For the better part of three seasons at the helm, Leitao has been reluctant to use any kind of full-court pressure defense. But his mindset seems to be changing.

On Saturday, Virginia used a press that was, at times, very effective, in helping the Cavaliers climb back from a 13-point hole. With Sene’s emergence as a legitimate shotblocker, UVa certainly has a great anchor.

Leitao’s use of the press was not just something he employed because of the deficit.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks,” Leitao said.

Monday morning QB

Leitao wasn’t pleased with the performance of point guards Calvin Baker and Sammy Zeglinski.

“It’s like a quarterback in football,” Leitao said. “You have to manage the game, manage the possessions — know when you take consecutive [or] two or three bad shots and calm things down, when to push and when to pull things back. I don’t think either one of them did as good a job as they’re capable of.”

The duo was only a combined 6 of 22 from the field, but, oddly, had their best combined assist-to-turnover ratio of the season (nine to two).

Punked

One of the most memorable postgame quotes from Saturday came from Landesberg, who said Auburn was “punking” Virginia on the boards. The freshman was definitely right about. UVa was manhandled on the glass, 44-30. That discrepancy was Virginia’s worst this season. The Cavs’ previous worst was a negative-10 effort at Minnesota on Dec. 2.

Dunk of the game

Virginia sophomore Mike Scott had the John Paul Jones Arena crowd fired up in the second half when he threw down a sweet windmill jam off an alley-oop from Zeglinski. It was UVa’s most exciting play in an otherwise dreary performance.