Cavaliers Cruise Past Great Danes

Virginia 84, Albany 57

COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 16 -- In 11 memorable minutes Friday afternoon, J.R. Reynolds negated two disaster-filled weeks. His ominous, unspecified hip injury? Much better. His horrendous shooting performance in back-to-back upset losses to Wake Forest and North Carolina State? Forgotten.

In an 84-57 win over Albany in a South Region first-round game, Reynolds provided the panacea for all of Virginia's problems during the past month. The senior guard made his first seven shots, including four three-pointers, to help fourth-seeded Virginia cruise to a 19-point lead in the first seven minutes. When the game officially ended 33 meaningless minutes later, Reynolds walked off the Nationwide Arena court with his right index finger held high above his head.

For a Virginia player to signal No. 1 would have been a laughable gesture two hours earlier. But, after playing one of their best first halves of the season and cruising to their first NCAA tournament win since 1995, the Cavaliers suddenly looked like a team capable of making a run deep into this tournament. They'll play fifth-seeded Tennessee in the second round Sunday.

"I was feeling good all week, and I just got back into the rhythm and got it going," said Reynolds, who finished with a game-high 28 points and seven rebounds. "We made a great statement. We gave everybody an idea of what we're capable of doing."

Reynolds made his first jumper two minutes into the game, and his confidence swelled with each successive shot. He launched two consecutive high-arcing three-pointers over Albany guard Jamar Wilson, and both swished cleanly through the net. A minute later, he used a quick crossover dribble to set up another jumper that gave Virginia a 26-9 lead with 9 minutes 30 seconds left in the half.

Wearing bright orange, glow-in-the-dark shoes that contrasted with his teammates' black sneakers, Reynolds regained the swagger that coaches worried he had lost in the past few weeks. He pranced and preened during timeouts. He held up his follow-through hand after shots and then turned to nod at television cameras.

"He knows he's a great player and nothing is going to stop him," Virginia forward Jason Cain said. "We all feed off that."

Even before the first media timeout, Virginia gave Albany a merciless lesson in the exponential power of momentum. The Cavaliers rotated impeccably on defense and created turnovers; turnovers led to fast breaks and open shots for Reynolds; Reynolds's hot hand eventually drew two defenders and created easy shots for other Virginia players. Fellow guard Sean Singletary finished with 23 points and nine assists, marking the fourth time this season both Singletary and Reynolds scored more than 20 points.

In the locker room after the game, a few Virginia players studied a stat sheet that looked almost flawless. Albany shot a woeful 20 percent from three-point range in the first half. Meantime, Virginia made 53 percent of its shots and grabbed 15 more rebounds.

"Obviously, I'm very happy," Virginia Coach Dave Leitao said. "It was particularly nice to see J.R. come back and play the way he's capable of playing. After the last few games, this is exactly what we needed to get on track."

Albany thought it had a good chance to upset Virginia largely because of Reynolds's slump. After averaging more than 20 points during ACC play, Reynolds degenerated at the end of the regular season. Bothered by an injury -- maybe an abdominal strain, maybe a hip issue -- Reynolds made just 9 of 44 shots in Virginia's last three games. The Cavaliers spiraled with him, playing aimlessly on offense at the end of the conference season and in a first-round loss at the ACC tournament.

Teammates said Reynolds's rejuvenation started this week in practice. For the first time in almost a month, he practiced regularly and participated in all of Virginia's drills. He underwent daily treatment for his injury, which improved enough for him to temporarily ignore it during the days preceding the NCAA tournament.

Against Albany, Reynolds said he never felt pain. He briefly scared the Cavaliers, though, when he drove to the lane midway through the first half, drew a hard foul and fell to the ground. Reynolds lay there for a few seconds, the basketball still in his hands.

"I thought he might have gotten kind of banged up," Singletary said.

Instead, before Reynolds got up to shoot his free throws and while still flat on his back, he lobbed the ball toward the basket two-handed, like a soccer throw-in. The ball arced gently toward the backboard, ricocheted off the glass and fell through the net.

"Man, when you've got it going like that," Reynolds said, "you've got it going good."