The game came down to a layup just prior to the buzzer, a failed attempt at a winning basket by Miami's Durand Scott. The guard got his own rebound, but the clock expired before he could launch a follow shot.
The 52-51 home victory by the Virginia Cavaliers raised their record to 14-1. UVa has won 12 in a row, its longest undefeated run since the 1981-82 season.
Tony Bennett's club is prospering thanks in large part to the ACC's stingiest defense, holding opposing teams to an average of 50.5 points. To put that in perspective, the last league squad to limit opponents to fewer than 60 points per game was N.C. State in 1997.
Of course Virginia has virtually its entire ACC schedule ahead of it, significantly increasing the degree of difficulty in maintaining its impressive scoring defense. To wit: UVa's next outing comes on Thursday at Duke, ranked second in the ACC with 82.1 points per game.
Miami rallied to make a game of it at Charlottesville after scoring a mere 17 points in the first half. This was strikingly inept, but hardly unparalleled. Over the past season and a half ACC teams endured 12 periods in which they scored 17 or fewer points.
Rock bottom was reached by Florida State in late December 2011, when it scored a whopping 10 points in the first half of an eventual loss to Princeton.
Boston College matched Miami's 13-point offensive ineptitude as it dropped its fourth consecutive home game against Harvard. All four Crimson wins came under coach Tommy Amaker, the former Blue Devil.
Last year Wake Forest, the biggest loser in ACC history (24), reached a comparable scoring nadir at Georgia Tech.
Other than those two outcomes, the recent scoring low was reached in November on a court in the US Virgin Islands, where Florida State tallied 14 points in the opening period. Against Harvard. Which also had 14 first-half points before pulling away to victory.
|
HALF BAKED |
|||||
| Pts | School, Opponent | Half | Result | Site | Date |
| 13* | Boston College v. Harvard | 2 | L | H | 12/29 |
| 13 | Wake Forest v. Georgia Tech | 2 | L | A | 1/19 |
| 14* | Florida State v. Harvard | 1 | L | N | 11/25 |
| 15 | Virginia v. Duke | 2 | L | H | 2/16 |
| 15 | Virginia v. Iowa State | 1 | L | H | 12/30 |
| 16 | Miami v. Florida State | 1 | L | A | 2/26 |
| 16 | Virginia v. Boston College | 2 | L | H | 2/26 |
| 16 | N.C. State v. Clemson | 2 | L | A | 1/25 |
| 17* | Miami v. Virginia | 1 | L | A | 1/7 |
| 17 | Boston College v. Miami | 1 | L | H | 2/23 |
| 17 | Florida State v. Ohio State | 1 | L | H | 11/30 |
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