Story by Chris Graham
With AFP Audio
It was 49-27 at the half, and the Tony Bennett Era at UVa. was off to a rollicking good start. The faithful at the John Paul Jones Arena gave the Cavs a standing ovation on their way into the locker room.
Then the ghosts of 2008-2009 made their appearance.
“We struggled a lit bit defensively in the second half. That might be an understatement,” said Bennett.
Yeah, understatement is a good word. Longwood shot itself back into the game with a blistering 17-of-31 second-half performance from the field that had the Lancers hitting 6-of-10 from behind the three-point arc and cutting the Virginia lead to single digits on several different occasions, before the ‘Hoos righted the ship down the stretch for a closer-than-it-needed-to-be 85-72 win Friday night.
The defensive lapse that was the second half overshadowed an otherwise impressive debut for the new-look Virginia offense, which was supposed to be plodding under the supposedly deliberate Bennett. Hardly plodding at all, the Cavs shot 60 percent from the field for the game (30-for-50) and only struggled when they had a hard time in a stretch of the second half holding onto the ball.
Virginia committed 11 turnovers in the second half, including two in a five-second span by freshman point guard Jontel Evans that sparked an 11-0 Longwood run that cut the UVa. lead to 60-50 with 10:44 to go.
It was as close as eight before Virginia reasserted itself.
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Tony Bennett Postgame Press Conference (11:46)
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/thenewdominion01/AFP_UVa._postgame-Tony_Bennett.mp3]
Interview with Sylen Landesberg (1:11)
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/thenewdominion01/AFP_UVa._postgame-Sylven_Landesberg.mp3]
Interview with Jeff Jones (1:37)
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/thenewdominion01/AFP_UVa._postgame-Jeff_Jones.mp3]
Interview with Sammy Zeglinski (1:04)
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/thenewdominion01/AFP_UVa._postgame-Sammy_Zeglinski.mp3]
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“We’ve got a lot to work on, but I saw some good things out there,” said Jeff Jones, who scored eight of his 10 points in the second half, and was one of five Virginia players scoring in double figures.
“We’ve got to play better D and finish out. We’re a team that can start out real strong. We’ve just got to finish out,” Jones said.
“Give credit to them. They run some good stuff, and they know how to score the ball,” said Bennett of Longwood, which got 18 points from Antwan Carter on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 13 points from Billy Robinson on 6-of-8 shooting from the field.
“They made it look easy at times to score against our defense. It got porous. We got stretched,” Bennett said.
UVa. was clearly shorthanded inside with the absence of 7-foot sophomore center Assane Sene, suspended for the first three games for unspecified “conduct detrimental to the team” last week by Bennett. Bennett started a four-guard lineup with Mike Scott, who scored 12 points and pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds, at forward.
Jerome Meyinsse, a junior, logged 20 minutes in the post. Heralded freshman Tristan Spurlock, a 6-8 three and four, played just three minutes, and did not get off the bench in the second half.
Sophomore Sylven Landersberg led all scorers with 23 points. Mustapha Farrakhan had 17 points. Sammy Zeglinski had 14 points, making 4-of-7 from three-point range.
– Story by Chris Graham
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