Virginia handles Hampton

With less than five minutes to play on Tuesday night, fans at John Paul Jones Arena began chanting, “We want chicken” — a plea for Virginia to score over 80 points so that they could receive some complimentary eats from Raising Cane’s.
Well, the crowd didn’t get any chicken, but they did get to see something they hadn’t witnessed in a while — lots of smiles on the Virginia bench as the Cavaliers cruised to a much-needed 74-48 victory over Hampton in front of a listed crowd of 9,158.
“It definitely felt good to come out the way we did and attack and be aggressive after the first half against Auburn, which was a really depressing way to come out,” said Virginia guard Sammy Zeglinski. “Coming into this game we really wanted to focus on attacking and being aggressive.”
Virginia opens the ACC season at Georgia Tech on Sunday, so getting a little bit of mojo back was an absolute must. Hampton, out of the MEAC, was the perfect remedy.
“We had lost three of our last four games and everybody was doubting us,” said forward Mike Scott. “We realized that we don’t have anybody but ourselves, so we had to come out and play hard and get a good win.”
Scott was instrumental in the team’s improved play. The sophomore, who had averaged just five shots attempts in his past three games, got a lot more touches. The end result was a 17-point (on 6 of 10 shooting), 15-rebound performance.
“Mike had a great game,” said Zeglinski, who had 11 points and four assists himself. “We really wanted to exploit him because he’s shooting the best percentage on the team. We wanted to feed him the ball tonight because when he touches the ball good things happen.”
After the Auburn game in which Scott collected just three boards in 27 minutes and Virginia was outrebounded by 14, Scott was so disgusted with himself that he got up in front of his teammates during a meeting and apologized.
“I used the word ‘soft,’ ‘passive,’ and some other words that I can’t say,” Scott said, “and I told them that it won’t happen again. I won’t ever have a rebounding
performance like that again.”
Virginia (5-4) came out of the gates strong. A Scott layup off a pretty feed from Sylven Landesberg put UVa up 19-6.
But a scoring drought — similar to the ones on Saturday against Auburn — ensued. Virginia tallied just three points over the next six minutes as Hampton clawed to within six points. UVa was able to open up a 13-point lead near the end of the stanza, but a 3-pointer by Hampton’s Jordan Brooks made it 38-27 at the break and had Leitao screaming at Jerome Meyinsse for not boxing out as the teams left the floor.
However, Virginia seemed more juiced to start the second half. Two Scott buckets started a 12-0 run that essentially turned the game into a laugher.
“This is not the team I saw on tape the last two weeks,” said Hampton coach Kevin Nickelberry. “They were probably underachieving and we were overachieving.
“They played with a purpose and really attacked and didn’t allow us to do the things we wanted to do. I’m not sure in my three years we’ve been taken apart like this.”
Nickelberry was especially impressed with Scott.
“Scott was a man in there,” he said. “He really was a man.”
Virginia was stout on the defensive end, holding Hampton to just 29-percent shooting. The Pirates (5-5) had just one player score in double figures (Vincent Simpson with 10 points).
UVa also had a season-high 10 blocks, including two each from Scott, Meyinsse, Assane Sene and Tunji Soroye.
It all had coach Dave Leitao in a pretty good mood afterward.
“Mike came back and rebounded the way he has the potential to,” Leitao said. “Assane was a presence again. Sammy did a much better job of leading us today.
“We’ll take a day or two to enjoy our families and the gifts God has given us and get ready for Georgia Tech.”
Dunks
Virginia fifth-year senior Tunji Soroye made his first appearance since the loss to Syracuse on Nov. 28. Soroye looked a little rusty on the offensive end. He was 1 of 3 for two points in five minutes. …Freshman Sylven Landesberg, sporting a new Mohawk hairdo, failed to hit double figures for the first time this season. He had nine points, three assists and three rebounds. …About seven minutes into the second half, Zeglinski hit a half-court shot just after being fouled. The basket didn’t count. Zeglinski joked that it would have counted under the NBA’s continuation rule. “I always seem to be making weird shots like that,” said Zeglinski, smiling. “He fouled me and I just threw it up.”