Auburn Visits Richmond

Auburn v Virginia, December 3, 2004

Stuart Siegel Center, Sec 9 Row L

Correction: The University of Virginia did come back to play in Richmond after the embarrassment on national TV at the cancellation of a game due to a slippery court. Michigan State came to town in 2001 as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, a made for TV faux-rivalry. But Virginia stiffed the outdated and poorly run Richmond Coliseum in favor of a newer, much smaller venue.

Virginia freshman Sean Singletary gave coach Pete Gillen the aggressive performance he was looking for.Singletary scored 15 of his 25 points in the second half, including eight in a 10-5 run when Virginia (No. 25 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) went ahead to stay with just over seven minutes left, helping the Cavaliers to an 89-87 victory over Auburn on Friday night.His solid performance comes one game after a Virginia slipped past Northwestern 48-44 in the ACC-Big Ten challenge Wednesday night."You've got the take what the defense gives you," the freshman from Philadelphia said. "They were keying on J.R. (Reynolds) and Devin (Smith). I had a lot of open opportunities, so I just took advantage of it."Singletary hit 9 of 16 shots, including a 3-pointer in the go-ahead spurt, and grabbed seven rebounds for the Cavaliers. Smith added 23 points and eight rebounds, Elton Brown scored 17 and Reynolds scored 12.The Cavaliers needed all of it to overcome a huge game by Tigers freshman Toney Douglas, who had 33 points, and a strange ending.Leading 89-84, Singletary committed a foul in the backcourt with three seconds left. Ian Young made his first free throw, missed the second and Quinnel Brown rebounded, scored and was fouled by Smith with 1.7 seconds remaining. Brown tried to bang a miss off the rim to allow for a tying tip, but the ball was slapped out to halfcourt and Virginia held on.Douglas, who had 38 points in a victory against Nicholls State, was 11-for-18 from the field and hit five of Auburn's 13 3-pointers."I love it when teams think that because we're small, they can blow us out," Douglas said after the Tigers lineup included no starter taller than 6-foot-6. "They're wrong. We use speed and shooting to keep us in games."Nathan Watson and Ronny LeMelle added 15 points each and Young had 11 as the Tigers shot 52.6 percent and the Cavaliers shot 53.2 percent."We were fortunate that we were able to score because we couldn't stop them," Gillen said. "That freshman is unbelievable."Douglas pulled the Tigers to 79-78 on a 3-pointer with 3:10 left, but after Brown hit two free throws for Virginia, Gary Forbes knocked the ball away from Douglas a moment later and Smith's 3-pointer made it 84-78.Another 3-pointer by Watson with 1:34 left pulled the Tigers to 85-82, a margin that ed better after Jason Clark missed two free throws for the Cavaliers, but two straight scoreless trips down the floor for the Tigers and the first two of Reynolds' late free throws eased the suspense.The loss was the first for the Tigers (5-1) under coach Jeff Lebo.