Virginia (14-12, 5-8) lost its sixth straight game Tuesday night, this time to Miami in a 74-62 effort. The Cavaliers were led by Sylven Landesberg's game-high 27 points. Landesberg had a career-high six three-point field goals in the game. Jerome Meyinsse had personal ACC career highs with 13 points and seven rebounds for the Cavaliers, and Jeff Jones scored 11 points. Meyinsse also had a career-high three assists.
Landesberg scored eight consecutive points on three jump shots to give Virginia a 28-26 advantage during a back-and-forth first half, but Miami led 33-32 at the break with a halftime buzzer jumper.
"There were just some breakdowns, head coach Tony Bennett said. "We were in there for the first half and just couldn't make them earn enough. A key breakdown here or there makes a big difference. We can't let them shoot a high percentage."
Dwayne Collins scored eight points as Miami went on an 18-5 run to turn a tie at 40 into a 58-45 lead with just over 6 minutes left. Virginia was unable to pull within single digits the rest of the way.
"Their effort is pretty good," coach Bennett said about his squad. "But our execution wanes as the game gets real physical later on and that has hurt us."
Miami shot 47.5 percent (28-59) from the field, including 33.3 percent (7-21) from three-point range, and 84.6 percent (11-13) from the free-throw line. The Hurricanes also out-rebounded the Cavaliers 39-31.
Virginia shot 35.1 percent (20-57) from the field, including 41.7 percent (10-24) from three-point range, and 80.0 percent (12-15) from the free-throw line. It was the sixth consecutive game the Cavaliers shot less than 38 percent from the field.
Bennett tried new things last night, shortening the rotation such that Mustapha Farrakhan did not even see playing time, and Jontel Evans, who has started a number of games this season, only saw three minutes.. Oddly though, Solomon Tat was called up for the evening, contributing two points in six minutes. Mike Scott, who started and played for 22 minutes, put up 0 points and 2 turnovers.