Story by Chris Graham
Video: Mustapha Farrakhan poster dunk
Audio: Tony Bennett’s postgame press conference
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Mustapha Farrakhan had been dealing with his struggles of late by hitting the gym. Wednesday night he hit North Carolina State with a poster slam dunk that ignited the John Paul Jones Arena crowd and his Virginia teammates.
“I have not seen it yet, but it felt great,” said Farrakhan, who scored nine points in a long second-half 24-6 UVa. run that propelled the surprising Cavaliers to another ACC win, knocking off the Wolfpack by a 59-47 final.
The Virginia lead was at 43-36 after a Farrakhan three when the junior guard picked up a loose ball at midcourt and drove hard to the basket on State guard Javier Gonzalez. The lefthanded Farrakhan elevated over Gonzalez from the right side of the lane and threw the ball down with his right hand while getting fouled by Gonzalez.
The free throw pushed the UVa. lead to 10 with 6:42 to go, and a Farrakhan three from the left corner a minute and a half later pushed the lead to 13 at 51-38.
Video: Mustapha Farrakhan throws it down (0:37)
State (14-9, 2-6 ACC) would get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Farrakhan was one of three ‘Hoos in double figures with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field.
Mike Scott led Virginia with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Jerome Meyinsse added 10 points. Sylven Landesberg, averaging 18.2 points per game coming in, struggled from the field to a 2-of-10 shooting performance that left him out of double digits with seven points, but the sophomore forward had nine assists.
“Sylven did a great job of making the next pass,” UVa. coach Tony Bennett said. “He got guys wide open looks – he had nine assists, six rebounds, he made his free-throws – he was solid. I liked what I saw in him.”
“We got the win. That’s all that matters,” said Landesberg, who offered thanks to media covering the ACC for the motivation that they inadvertently gave the team when they picked the Cavs to finish 12th and last in the conference in the preseason.
Virginia (14-6, 5-2 ACC) climbed back into a tie for first place in league play with the win Wednesday night.
“I just want to thank all the people who voted us to be in last place. Thank you for giving us a lot of motivation. I still have that preseason poll posted up on my wall, and I look at it every day,” Landesberg said.
Audio: Tony Bennett’s postgame press conference (9:43)
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/thenewdominion01/TONY_BENNETT_N.C._State_postgame.mp3]
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