The Associated Press
January 14, 2010
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--Sylven Landesberg scored 22 points and Virginia used a 16-4 run late in the second half to surge past No. 20 Georgia Tech 82-75 on Wednesday night.
Virginia (10-4, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) won its sixth straight game, its longest winning streak since it won seven in a row in the 2006-07 season, and opened ACC play 2-0 for the first time since 1994-95, when the Cavaliers won their first four conference games.
Georgia Tech (12-4, 1-2), coming off a victory against Duke, shot better than 50 percent from the field, but struggled mightily at the free throw line, missing 8 of 11 attempts.
The Cavaliers, conversely, were 23-for-26, including 14 of 15 in the final 8 1/2 minutes.
Mustapha Farrakhan added 15 points and Mike Scott 12 for Virginia.
Zachery Peacock led Georgia Tech with 19 points and Iman Shumpert had 15.
Virginia trailed 55-51 until Sammy Zeglinski hit a 3-pointer from the left corner, only the third of the game for the Cavaliers. It sparked the big run that gave the home team a 67-59 lead, the biggest of the game for either team, and whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
Georgia Tech scored on its next two possessions, both times on turnaround jumpers by Gani Lawal, but Landesberg hit two free throws in between. Virginia got three chances the next time down court and chewed up plenty of clock before each shot. Finally, after Landesberg rebounded a missed free throw by Jerome Meyinsse, Zeglinski hit a contested 3-pointer with the shot clock running down, making it 72-63 with 2:08 left and giving Virginia a cushion.
All Virginia had to do the rest of the way was make its free throws.
Neither team led by more than six in the first half, which ended with the Yellow Jackets scoring nine of the last 11 points to lead 39-38.
