Deacs strong-arm Cavs
Wake Forest's Paul scores 21, dishes 9 assists
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
January 3, 2005

Virginia’s leading scorer Devin Smith missed Sunday’s game with Wake Forest because of a sprained right ankle. Smith at least had an excuse. The rest of the Cavaliers - many of the ones that did play - also pretty much missed Sunday’s game. Their ailments were undisclosed.

The No. 5 Demon Deacons, paced by 21 points and nine assists from sophomore Chris Paul, throttled the lethargic, dazed and at times inept No. 25 Cavaliers, 89-70, in the ACC opener for both teams.

“Wake Forest is an outstanding team and we didn’t have answers for Chris Paul tonight. A few of our guys just didn’t show up tonight and didn’t play their normal games,” Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. “I don’t know if they were dazed or if it was too big a game. I’m disappointed we didn’t play the way we are capable.”

Virginia (8-2, 0-1 ACC) has now lost 10 straight ACC openers while the Deacons (12-1) earned their first win in University Hall since 2000. It also marked Wake’s largest margin of victory at Virginia since an 84-65 decision in 1962 at Memorial Gym.

“That was one of our best games against a quality opponent in a difficult venue. Any win in this league is something to treasure, especially on the road,” Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said.

Justin Gray finished with 17 for the Deacons and Eric Williams had 15 points and 10 rebounds as Wake outrebounded the Cavaliers 45-28, including a 28-12 margin in the second half.

Freshman Adrian Joseph, making his first career start in Smith’s absence, had a career-high 19 points while J.R. Reynolds added 17. Elton Brown, sufficiently outdueled by Williams in the post for much of the afternoon, was among those “dazed” Cavaliers. Brown was just 3 of 12 from the floor and 2 of 7 from the stripe and finished with eight points and nine rebounds.

The first half was fairly back-and-forth as Virginia primarily stayed within striking distance because of Joseph’s 15 first-half points.

“I thought Adrian was spectacular for us tonight,” Gillen said.

Joseph was informed of his starting assignment Thursday as Smith, who sprained his ankle in Virginia’s last game against Loyola Marymount on Dec. 23, was declared unable to play late last week.

“I knew that with Devin not playing that I would have to raise my game and step up when needed,” said Joseph, a native of San Fernando, Trinidad.

Wake held a 37-34 advantage with 1:22 left in the first half when perhaps the game’s most critical play arrived.

After snaring a loose ball, Virginia’s Gary Forbes was whistled for traveling after breaking free of an aggressive trap by the Deacons. The call quickly drew a strong reaction from Gillen, who was immediately assessed a technical. It was just the third technical of his Virginia tenure.

“I didn’t like some things that were going on and I complained. … I didn’t like the consistency out there. That’s all I want to say,” Gillen said.

Prosser, who served as an assistant to Gillen for eight years at Xavier, claimed he couldn’t remember being present for a Gillen technical.

Paul made the two free throws following the technical and then on the ensuing possession, Taron Downey buried a trey for a 42-34 advantage. The Deacs ultimately took a 42-37 lead into intermission.

Other than that five-point possession following the technical, the game seemed to be teetering in the balance but the Deacons quickly took care of that after halftime.

The Deacons, by either pounding the ball to a well positioned Williams on the interior or using their superior guard play on the perimeter, opened the second half on a 15-2 run and gained a 57-39 lead with 15:22 left in the game.

“We weren’t rebounding and weren’t executing on our offense and when you do that against a good team like Wake, you will find yourself down 20 and that’s what happened,” UVa forward Jason Clark said.

The Cavaliers made only one serious charge to get themselves back in the game. A 9-0 run, capped by a Reynolds’ 3-pointer, made it 57-48 with 13:54 to play. Moments later, the Cavaliers had an opportunity to cut the deficit to six, 61-55, but Brown couldn’t convert the free throw for a three-point play and Virginia would never get closer than eight the rest of the way.

The missed free throw and Brown’s performance overall pretty much epitomized the Cavaliers overall effort Sunday.

“That hurt us. We had chances but couldn’t sustain them. … Elton missed shots he usually makes tonight and he usually shoots free throws a little better than that,” Gillen said. “Defensively they doubled Elton and took him out of his game. Elton seemed very unsure tonight.”

Gillen said there was an outside chance Smith could play Wednesday against Western Kentucky and he no doubt hopes the other Cavaliers will join him this time.

Singletary is still a work in progress
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
January 3, 2005

Almost a year before Sean Singletary stepped foot on campus, he was bombarded by comparisons to Wake Forest’s Chris Paul.

If Singletary, the freshman phenom from Philly, was annoyed by such analysis it never showed. Still, it was there in just about every story that was written about him coming in to Virginia’s basketball program. It was on the tip of every Wahoo fans’ tongue ... “Hey, this Singletary kid is supposed to be the next Chris Paul.”

Even Singletary’s high school coach at Penn Charter, Jim Phillips, couldn’t avoid the temptation. He compared his product’s game to that of Paul’s and predicted that Singletary would do for Virginia his freshman season what Paul did for the Demon Deacons.

Now, every ACC hoops fan knows that Paul had an unbelievable freshman season, wrapping up the league’s Rookie of the Year honors and leading his team deep into the NCAA slamdance. But what Paul did most for the Deacs was make everyone around him better.

That’s what Singletary has a chance to do, but the Cavalier rook is still a work in progress. He has already drawn the oohs and ahhs expected. He has already shown an ability to lead the team, to get the ball to teammates when and where they like it, to see the floor, to handle the ball and run the offense. He has proven he can light up the scoreboard with his 25 against Auburn.

Paul has advantages

But when it came to Sunday’s long anticipated showdown between Singletary and Paul, it wasn’t what it was cracked up to be.

In all fairness to Singletary, who isn’t intimidated by anyone, Paul had the upper hand in experience and was surrounded by more proven talent.

“[Wake] had great point guard play,” Singletary said when asked about the matchup in Virginia’s 89-70 loss to the Deacs in both team’s ACC openers. “Chris played real well. He’s got more experience than me. He hit his open teammates and he made a lot of his shots, so they deserved to win.”

Indeed.

The fifth-ranked Deacs, once rated No. 1 in all of hoopsdom, had their way with Virginia. They killed the Cavs on the boards (45-28), shot their free throws (24 of 31), and shot 51 percent for the game while scoring Wake’s largest margin of victory in Charlottesville since the 1961-62 season.

And what of that Paul vs. Singletary matchup?

Well, maybe next time

For the record, Wake’s sophomore point guard scored a game-high 21 points in 35 minutes. His line was impressive, but by far not his best effort: 4 of 10 from the field, 2 of 2 from beyond the arc, 11 of 12 from the free-throw line, nine assists, five turnovers and a steal.

Singletary’s line was, shall we say, freshman-like. In 24 minutes he scored one bucket (1 of 6), had six assists and three turnovers.

It wasn’t what Singletary expected, but Paul empathized with his opponent’s dilemma.

“I’ve been there and I’ve been thinking about that all the way up to this game ... how I felt last year as a freshman coming in and playing against the Raymond Feltons and Chris Duhons and players like that,” Paul said. “Because believe it or not when you get into conference play it’s a whole different season. You’ve just got to be prepared and be ready.”

Certainly Paul realizes that Singletary’s best days are ahead. Singletary knows it, too.

“Chris just played a good game,” Singletary said. “I had a bad game.”

Singletary was down but not out. He knows what he has to do. He knows that everyone will be talking about the next meeting with Paul more than the first one.

“Yeah, I’ve definitely heard the comparisons,” the UVa freshman said. “I don’t have much of a reaction. He’s a great player. I wasn’t nervous. I wasn’t reading any newspapers about the matchup. I just came out to play. I just have to put this behind me. I feel as though I’ve got a lot to prove going into league play, so I’m not going to dwell on this.”

When asked if he could see why people had made comparisons between the two point guards, Singletary didn’t hestitate.

“Not today,” he said with a grin.

He knew that Paul had gotten the best of him, even when he tried to get a little more physical with the Wake guard in the second half.

“I’ve got to be more physical with him the next time we play,” Singletary said. “I feel he responded well to the physical play in the second half. We have to jump on him from the beginning and not let him get going. He kind of had his way with us.”

Virginia coach Pete Gillen said his team had no answer for Paul or Wake big man Eric Williams in the middle, which meant that Singletary and Cavalier center Elton Brown didn’t perform the way Gillen anticipated.

Paul said he expected a battle from Singletary. He had studied a lot of film on the UVa rookie and had told Wake coach Skip Prosser two or three times during the week’s preparation for the game how good Singletary was, including what a hard-nosed player he appeared to be.

Prosser said last season and repeated Sunday that he wouldn’t trade Paul for any point guard in the country, something that Gillen hopes to be able to say in the future.

Even when Singletary tried to get physical with Paul in the second half, he was impressed with the way his older opponent handled himself.

“He had all the confidence in the world,” Singletary said.

Paul said the challenge got him a little juiced up, although he tried to focus more on how Wake Forest was playing than his personal matchup with UVa’s young gunslinger.

“It makes it a little bit more exciting,” Paul said. “Guys are always going to try to challenge you. Guys try to challenge you in different ways. That’s just the way it is. When somebody pushes that button, you just turn it up another notch.”

That’s what Paul, the veteran, was able to do.

That’s what Singletary, the rookie, learned on Sunday.

Business as usual for Cavs
Virginia suffers its 10th straight loss in an ACC opener, this time to fifth-ranked Wake Forest.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

CHARLOTTESVILLE - As long as Virginia was playing nonconference opposition, even respectable nonconference opposition, it was fine.

As usual, the Cavaliers had a rude introduction to ACC men's basketball competition. All of Virginia's deficiencies were exposed Sunday night as fifth-ranked Wake Forest routed 25th-ranked UVa 89-70, handing the Cavaliers their 10th straight loss in an ACC opener.

Virginia (8-2, 0-1 ACC) was without leading scorer Devin Smith and second-leading scorer Elton Brown couldn't have been more ineffective if he had joined Smith in streetclothes.

Brown made only 3 of 12 shots from the field, and went 2-for-7 from the free-throw line, missing four in a row during one stretch, including the front ends of two one-and-ones, to finish with eight points.

"A couple of our guys just didn't show up tonight," UVa coach Pete Gillen said. "I don't know if they were dazed, or it was too big a game, playing a top-five team on national TV."

Gillen didn't say who he was referring to, but by process of elimination, it wasn't hard to figure out.

Gillen said that freshman forward Adrian Joseph was "tremendous," that J.R. Reynolds "played very well," that Gary Forbes "gave us some good minutes off the bench," and that Jason Clark "was scrapping and clawing."

That left Brown and freshman point guard Sean Singletary.

At one point in the recruiting process, it was said that Singletary might have a similar impact on Virginia's program as Chris Paul has had at Wake Forest. That wasn't the case Sunday night, when Paul outscored Singletary 21-2.

Paul, the ACC freshman of the year in 2004, outscored Singletary 12-0 in the first half, but the Cavaliers were very much in the game, trailing 42-37.

Joseph, making his first collegiate start helped UVa jump to a 17-14 lead and it was a 37-34 game, in favor of the Deacons, when Forbes was called for a traveling violation while fighting the Deacons' Eric Williams for a rebound.

Gillen jumped to his feet in protest and immediately was called for a technical foul by official Mike Wood. Wake coach Skip Prosser, an assistant coach to Gillen for nine years at Xavier, said he could not remember ever seeing Gillen get a technical. UVa beat writers could remember only two other "T's" on Gillen in his six-plus seasons as Cavaliers coach.

"It wasn't language," Gillen said. "I didn't curse, I don't think. Maybe I did. I don't know. I just didn't like some things that were going on, so I complained. The crowd was booing, so I think they agreed with me."

UVa responded to Gillen's only previous technical at University Hall with a come-from-behind victory over Duke in 2002, but Gillen's tirade Sunday had no such galvanizing effect. When the Cavaliers missed seven of eight shots to start the second half, Wake (12-1) went on a 15-2 run, with the last 13 points coming unanswered.

Gillen yanked Brown and the Cavaliers responded with a 9-0 run. The Cavaliers got as close as 61-54 when Brown scored and was fouled with 11:37 left, but following a timeout, he missed his shot at a three-point play.

Brown did not score after that and he repeatedly failed to box out on the defensive boards as the Deacons outrebounded UVa 28-12 in the second half. He covered his head with a towel after going to the bench for the last time and declined interview requests after the game, which is not in character.

"We just pretty much stopped playing," his fellow co-captain, Clark, said. "We didn't defend, we didn't rebound, we didn't execute on offense. Next thing you know, you're down by 20."

Gillen said there is a chance that Smith, who suffered a severely sprained ankle Dec.23, can play Wednesday against Western Kentucky (10-1), but his replacements weren't the problem Sunday. Joseph, averaging 3.1 points after his first nine games, had 15 points by halftime and had three of the team's eight 3-point field goals.

"In some cases, you've got to pick your poison," Prosser said. "Elton Brown has always sort of had his way with us, and maybe he will again."

Gillen said he was unaware that Virginia has been 0-1 in the ACC every year since 1993-94, when the Cavaliers opened ACC play with four straight wins, not that he would have used it as motivation.

Deacons answer Cavs' call
BY DAVE JOHNSON
247-4649
Published January 3, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Sound advice to ACC point guards everywhere: Don't try getting under Chris Paul's skin. Virginia gave it a go Sunday afternoon, jabbing and bumping him at every opportunity, and the kid fought back - not with his fists, but with his cheesecake-good game.

Showing why many consider him the nation's finest point guard, Paul had 21 points and nine assists to lead fifth-ranked Wake Forest to an 89-70 victory over No. 25 Virginia in University Hall. With Cavalier rookie Sean Singletary doing his best to unnerve him - nothing dirty, just aggressive - Paul maintained control of the game on both ends of the floor.

"Guys always use different things to challenge you. That's the way it is," Paul said. "When somebody pushes that button, you just try to turn it up a notch."

That he did. After the Cavaliers cut the lead to 61-54 with 11:37 remaining, Paul drove past Singletary and hit a running shot. After a Virginia miss, Paul went 2-for-2 from the line after being fouled on a drive to the goal. He scored seven of his team's nine points over the next 21/2 minutes, and the Demon Deacons (12-1, 1-0 ACC) kept their lead in double digits the rest of the way.

Paul went 4-of-10 from the field, hit both of his 3-point attempts and was 11-of-12 from the foul line. Singletary, whom some liken to Paul, missed five of his six shots from the field.

"Chris played real well," Singletary said. "He hit his open teammates and he made a lot of big shots. He played really well and his team responded."

Paul led six Deacons in double figures, including center Eric Williams (15 points, 10 rebounds) and guard Justin Gray (17 points, 3-of-5 from the 3-point arc). With a lineup that includes size and athleticism, Wake shot 51 percent and outrebounded the Cavs 45-28.

Missing top scorer and emotional leader Devin Smith with a sprained ankle, U.Va. (8-2, 0-1) was in a hole from the start. Freshman Adrian Joseph stepped up with a season-high 19 points, 16 more than his average. Sophomores J.R. Reynolds and Gary Forbes combined for 30 on 11-of-19 shooting.

But Elton Brown, who had enjoyed decent success against the Deacs, was 3-of-12 from the field and 2-of-7 from the foul line. His basket with 11:37 left cut the lead to seven, but he missed a chance to convert a three-point play. A couple of minutes later, with the lead at 10, Brown bricked the front end of a one-and-one.

"He missed some shots he normally makes," Gillen said. "He's a better player than he was tonight."

Though it ended up losing its 10th consecutive ACC opener, Virginia didn't trail until Gray's 3-pointer gave Wake a 19-17 lead almost 10 minutes into the game. A key sequence came with 1:22 remaining in the half and the Deacs up 37-34. Paul had thrown the ball away and Forbes grabbed it off the backboard. But as Paul and Taron Downey swatted at the ball, Forbes was called for a walk.

Gillen protested, and lead official Mike Wood slapped him with his third technical in seven seasons at Virginia. Paul made both shots and Downey nailed a 3-pointer off the inbounds pass.

"I just didn't like some things that were going on," Gillen said.

Ill effects can’t slow Deacons in victory
By Rob Daniels Staff Writer
News & Record

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — If you’re handing out an award for toughness, you’ll find it hard to bypass a guy who throws up at halftime and finishes with 17 points.

But Justin Gray had company in diligence Sunday evening, and Wake Forest’s collective effort to dislodge Virginia from the low post while owning everything on its own offensive end added up to the surprisingly easy 89-70 victory.

“That was the best post trapping our post men have done thus far,” point guard Chris Paul said in admiration.

Elton Brown and Jason Clark, the Cavaliers’ center and power forward, went 5-for-17 from the floor and almost never had a good look at the basket. When somebody lobbed the ball inside, Vytas Danelius slid over and joined Eric Williams, enveloping Clark and Brown in a trap that left the Cavaliers seeking a complementary perimeter presence.

Chris Ellis and Kyle Visser contributed off the bench, and it became the Demon Deacons’ most lopsided win on this campus since Dec. 15, 1961, when a team bound for the Final Four claimed an 84-65 victory.

There was no doubt Wake would stress harassment of Brown, who got 24 points in the teams’ first meeting and 12 more in the second last year.

Assistant coach Dino Gaudio copied biography pages out of the UVa media guide and taped them to the wall in Wake’s cramped locker room, writing brief scouting reports on each guy. For Brown’s, he wrote, “Team’s Best Low-Post Scorer. Deny Deep Post Catches.”

That mission was accomplished early and often, when Brown, unable to do anything else, forced a pair of fall-away 10-footers.

“That was really important,” Williams said. “Coming into this game, we knew Brown was a tremendous post player. And he still is. But we tried to trap a lot more to neutralize that. Every time he touched the ball, we collapsed down. Vytas did a great job of helping.”

As Wake Forest was going on a 12-2 run early in the second half, Danelius and Williams got Brown in such a bad spot that the senior center’s shot missed the rim and hit the backboard. The other side of the backboard.

“We knew when Brown gets going, it’s so hard to stop him,” Danelius said. “He’s still going to make some points, but we didn’t want him to go out of control.

“We just wanted to push him and trap him under the basket. With hands up, obviously we blocked the shot. Or the ball hit us. He wouldn’t shoot that shot normally, you know?”

The Cavs lacked leading scorer Devin Smith, a 3-point threat who sat it out with a severely sprained ankle. But that didn’t fully explain such a lopsided margin.

The second part of the package was limiting the Cavaliers’ 3-point looks, of which they got only six in the second half.

“You got to be careful when you double the post because somebody’s always open,” Gaudio said. “What we also did well was rotate out of the double teams to cover the shooters. That was huge.”

The Demon Deacons found contributions from everybody. Gray began feeling ill Sunday morning and couldn’t even hold down Gatorade. But his teammates held down the opposition quite nicely.

Deacons dominate Cavaliers
U.Va. struggles mightily in its ACC opener with no help from Brown
BY JEFF WHITE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jan 3, 2005
WAKE 89 U.VA. 70

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- With its best player, Devin Smith, on the bench in street clothes, Virginia's chances of upsetting Wake Forest weren't great. Even so, nobody expected the 25th-ranked Cava- liers to fall apart last night. But that's what happened in the ACC opener for both teams.

"I just think we broke down mentally," sophomore swingman Gary Forbes said after Virginia's 89-70 loss at University Hall.

By the time the final horn sounded, fifth-ranked Wake had four walk-ons on the court, and a good portion of the sellout crowd of 8,392 had gone home. This was the Demon Deacons' most lopsided victory in Charlottesville since Dec. 15, 1961, when they won 84-65.

Sophomore point guard Chris Paul, a preseason All-American, led Wake (1-0, 12-1) with 21 points and added nine assists. Junior center Eric Williams dominated U.Va.'s Elton Brown down low, totaling 15 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard Justin Gray added 17 points for the Deacons, who opened the second half with a 15-2 run to break open a tight game.

"I'm just disappointed that we didn't the play the way we're capable of," U.Va. coach Pete Gillen.

Poor defense, poor free-throw shooting and poor rebounding doomed Virginia (0-1, 8-2), which looked, in Gillen's words, "dazed, sort of hesitant," and dropped its 10th consecutive ACC opener.

Wake coach Skip Prosser and his players, meanwhile, won for the first time at U-Hall.

"I thought without question the absence of Devin Smith was a contributing factor," Prosser said.

Without question, Prosser was correct. Yet at halftime the Cavaliers were very much in contention, trailing by only five points. In the final 20 minutes, however, Wake outrebounded the Cavs 28-12 and won going away.

"We just pretty much stopped playing," said U.Va. forward Jason Clark, who contributed eight points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots. "We didn't rebound, we didn't defend, we didn't execute on offense."

With Smith sidelined by a sprained ankle, and Forbes relegated to reserve duty for disciplinary reasons, Adrian Joseph made his first start. The 6-7, 200-pound freshman from Trinidad played brilliantly. Joseph made 7 of 12 shots from the floor, including 3 of 6 from beyond the arc, and scored a team-high 19 points, 15 before intermission.

Sophomore guard J.R. Reynolds also sparkled for Virginia, scoring 17 points, and Clark and Forbes (13 points) played well, too. But on a night when U.Va. desperately needed a big game from Brown, the 6-9 senior center failed to deliver.

Freshman point guard Sean Singletary struggled, too. He had six assists -- all in the first half -- but scored only three points, shooting only 1 of 6 from the floor.

"We just needed more guys to give us something," Gillen said.

Brown shot 3 of 12 from the floor and 2 of 7 from the line. Twice he missed the front end of one-and-ones. Most damaging, perhaps, was his missed free throw with 11:37 remaining.

After falling behind 57-39, Virginia had rallied furiously. Forbes' drive cut the Cavs' deficit to nine with 12:06 remaining, and then Brown was fouled on a field goal that made it 61-54 at the 11:37 mark. With an opportunity to make it a six-point game, Brown missed, and Paul scored on each of Wake's next two possessions to push the lead back to 11.

The Deacons led 37-34 late in the first half when Forbes, after getting bumped by Williams, was called for traveling by official Mike Wood. The call incensed Gillen, who'd only been assessed one technical foul at home during his seven seasons at U.Va. But Wood shocked the crowd by teeing-up Gillen with 1:22 left.

After Paul hit both free throws to make it 39-34, Wake kept the ball, and Taron Downey drilled a trey to complete a five-point possession.

"I just didn't like the consistency" of the officiating, Gillen said.

 

Deacons open ACC play by beating Cavs 89-70
Paul scores 21, hands out nine assists; WFU snaps skid at Charlottesville
By Dan Collins
JOURNAL REPORTER
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

Freshman Sean Singletary of Virginia spent the first nine games of his college career carving a reputation as the next Chris Paul.

Yesterday, in front of 8,932 fans at University Hall and a national television audience, he came face to face with the original. Singletary, a promising point guard from Philadelphia, will survive the experience.

But chances are he won't forget it.

Controlling play most of the 35 minutes he was on the floor, Paul piled up 21 points and nine assists to lead fifth-ranked Wake Forest to an 89-70 win over the No. 25 Cavaliers in the ACC opener for both schools. Eric Williams added 15 points and 10 rebounds, Justin Gray shook off a stomach virus to score 17 and Jamaal Levy contributed 12 points and nine rebounds, but there was no doubt in at least one mind about who was the difference in the game.

"We just didn't have any answers for Chris Paul tonight," Coach Pete Gillen of Virginia said. "He was tremendous."

The Deacons improved to 12-1 with their first victory at Virginia since March 2, 2000, when Paul was a high-school freshman and Dave Odom was in his next-to-last season as Wake Forest's head coach.

Virginia, which played without leading scorer Devin Smith, fell to 8-2 with their second loss in the last four games.

"I thought it was our best game of the year against a quality opponent in a very difficult venue," Coach Skip Prosser of Wake Forest said. "Any win in this league is to be treasured, but road wins are especially treasure-worthy, I guess.

"We're thrilled to be about to get on the highway and go home and be 1-0 in this second phase of our season."

With Smith out with a sprained ankle, the Cavaliers needed especially strong performances from Singletary and Elton Brown, their 6-9, 255-pound senior center. But Singletary made one of six shots from the floor for two points and Brown, swamped by Wake Forest's double-teams, made three of 12 and finished with eight points.

"Without question the absence of Devin Smith was a contributing factor because he is such a threat and a senior leader and I think he gives tremendous courage to their whole team," Prosser said.

Paul, the ACC's Rookie of the Year last year as a freshman, said he could empathize with what Singletary was going through yesterday. Singletary drew raves by amassing 15 points and eight rebounds against Arizona and 25 points against Auburn.

"I've been there," Paul said. "And I've been thinking about that all the way up to this game, how I felt last year as a freshman.... Because believe it or not when you get into conference play it's a whole different season.

"You've just got to be prepared and be ready."

Singletary said he has heard the comparisons, but attempted not to dwell on them.

"I've definitely heard it," Singletary said. "But they went deep into the tournament last year and he played on the USA (20-under) team. He's a lot more experienced that me.

"I feel I can turn the page and play well next game."

Play turned extremely physical, especially in the second half when Wake Forest surged to a 57-39 lead, absorbed a Virginia comeback that sliced the lead to seven, and then pulled away by scoring on 12 straight possessions.

Paul was knocked to the floor repeatedly, but time and again got up to hit two free throws. He made 11 of 12 free throws in the game, and nine of 10 in the second half.

"It makes it a little bit more exciting," Paul said of Virginia's aggressive tactics. "Guys are always going to try to challenge you.... That's just the way it is.

"When somebody pushes that button, you just turn it up another notch."

Williams said he was impressed by Paul's composure.

"A lot of teams do that," Williams said. "They know how good Chris is and they try to take him out of the game. But Chris is so calm and he's so in control of himself, it really doesn't work."

Singletary was asked what the Cavaliers have to do to contain Paul when the teams play on Feb. 27 in Winston-Salem.

"We've just got to be more physical with him next time we play," Singletary said.

Although Gray was feeling queasy both during the game and after, it wasn't as noticeable on the floor, where he hit six of 10 field-goal attempts - including three of five from 3-point range. He said he was nauseous before the game and during halftime.

"I was dizzy, but I just wanted to play," Gray said. "Coach asked me right before the game 'Do you want to take the night off?' I said, 'Don't count on it.'"

The Cavaliers needed a surprise offensive barrage from freshman Adrian Joseph to stay in the game. Joseph, who had scored 28 points all season, finished with 19 points.

But 15 of Joseph's points came in the first half. In the second half, with Joseph contained by Levy and Trent Strickland and the Deacons pounding the Cavaliers 28-12 on the backboards, Wake Forest pulled away.

"A couple of our guys just didn't show up tonight and just didn't play their normal game," Gillen said.

"I thought Adrian Joseph was tremendous. I thought J.R. Reynolds played really well. Gary Forbes off the bench gave us some good minutes. And I thought Jason Clark was scrapping and clawing.

"But some of the other guys just didn't play the way they are capable."