U.Va. suffers loss to Duke in low-scoring affair

By Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE

Virginia now has the distinction of holding defending NCAA champion Duke to its lowest scoring total of the 2010-2011 men's basketball season.

That was the only distinction the Cavaliers carried away from a 56-41 loss to the Blue Devils on Wednesday night at John Paul Jones Arena.

It also was a season-low scoring total for Virginia, which now has failed to score 50 points in three straight home games, one of them a victory.

"So, is it a shock?" U.Va. coach Tony Bennett said. "No, but it's frustrating."

It was the lowest point total for a Virginia team since the Blue Devils beat the Cavaliers 63-41 in the opening game of the 1998 ACC Tournament in what was Jeff Jones' final game as ACC coach.

And, to get to 41 points Wednesday, Virginia needed a dunk by Akil Mitchell with 26 seconds left. The Cavs scored 15 points in the second half, going 6 for 26 from the field.

"I told the guys after the game, 'I believe you're better than that,' " Bennett said. "You can't be in a game where you shoot a percentage like that."

Virginia (12-13, 3-8 ACC) dropped below .500 for the first time this season after suffering its eighth loss in the past 10 games.

"Their defense was good," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose team's previous low had come in a 66-61 loss at Florida State. "Ours was a little better."

The Cavaliers had to know they had a tough match-up against a Duke team that was ranked No. 1 for the first 10 weeks of the season and now has beaten Virginia in 16 of their past 17 meetings.

In 15 of those Blue Devil victories, the margin has been more than 10 points.

Fifth-ranked Duke (24-2, 11-1) shot 50 percent from the field, but was saddled with 18 turnovers - one under its season high.

Senior guard Nolan Smith had four of the turnovers, but more than made up for it with a 22-point scoring night. There were only two other double-figure scorers in the game, Blue Devils sophomore Ryan Kelly and Virginia senior Mustapha Farrakhan with 11 each.

Farrakhan missed nine straight shots from the field during one stretch and finished 4 of 14. Over the past two games, he is 7 of 29 from the field, including 2 of 13 on 3-pointers.

Virginia had made 11 3-pointers in each of its previous two games, but Duke came forewarned. The Cavaliers took 12 3-point shots, down from 30 in a 63-56 loss Saturday at Florida State, and connected three times.

"Overall, we've been the best in the league in 3-point defense and one of the best in the country," Krzyzewski said. "I think playing Miami before this helped us because Miami can be similar.

"Miami with [Reggie Johnson] has a low-post scorer. Although [Assane] Sene has played really well for them, he's not the scorer that Johnson is.

"You never have to double the post. We just tried to stick with their 3-point shooters and make them 2-point shooters."

The Cavaliers might have liked their chances if they had known that career 2,000-point scorer Kyle Singler would finish with two points, matching his career low. Singler also had five turnovers in a foul-plagued 23-minute outing.

"Tonight was a bad game and I'm OK with that," Krzyzewski said. "Kyle's won 117 games as a player. He's 117-20; he's entitled to not playing as well once every once in a while."

Virginia, a 76-60 loser in Durham, N.C., earlier this season, was without injured forward Will Sherrill for the second game in a row.

The Cavaliers, who earlier had lost leading scorer and rebounder Mike Scott for the duration of the season, went with a seven-man rotation Wednesday before Bennett inserted freshman Will Regan for the final two minutes.

For the second time in the last three Duke-Virginia men's basketball games, U.Va. scored fewer points than it had in a 54-49 football loss at Duke this past fall. That also was more points than the combined total Wednesday.