RALEIGH, N.C. -- J.R. Reynolds had barely embarked on a late-game scoring burst Wednesday night when an errant pass earned him a trip to the bench and an earful from Virginia coach Dave Leitao.

Reynolds was out of the game for all of 11 seconds.

"One of my assistants, Coach [Bill] Courtney, said, 'We can't take him out; we need him,' " Leitao said. "I just needed to take him out and yell at him."

It wasn't the first time in the past two seasons that Reynolds had experienced Leitao's wrath.

"He responded very well, obviously, and made big shots with guys draped all over him," said Leitao after a 71-58 victory at North Carolina State.

"He's a terrific, skilled player who can really put the ball in the basket as well as anybody I've ever been around. He knows he's got a green light."

Reynolds, a 6-foot-2 ¹₂ senior from Roanoke scored 22 points in the final 10:57 and finished with 29. Backcourt partner Sean Singletary added 27 points, including 15 as Virginia built a 26-19 halftime lead.

Singletary was 6-for-14 from the field in the first half and the rest of the Cavaliers were 4-for-21, missing 15 straight shots during one particularly ugly stretch.

"The team needed somebody to step up and I knew I had to be that guy, especially the way Sean had it going in the first half," said Reynolds, who scored five points in the first half, when two fouls limited him to 14 minutes. "I knew I had to come to his rescue and give him a little bit of help."

Reynolds scored 40 points Sunday in an 88-76 victory over Wake Forest, and the Wolfpack (11-8, 1-5 ACC) were well aware of the danger that he presented.

In the season's ACC opener, Reynolds scored 13 of his 14 points in the final 7:12 as the Cavaliers rallied for a 67-62 victory over the Wolfpack in Charlottesville, Va.

"If you have good guards, you'll win in this conference, you'll win college basketball games, and they have good guards," first-year State coach Sidney Lowe said.

Reynolds' 69 points in consecutive games didn't set a school record; in fact, it wasn't a season high for Virginia. Singletary had 70 points in consecutive games against American University (33) and Gonzaga (37).

Wednesday's victory was the third in a row for the Cavaliers (12-6, 4-2) and their first on the road since a Jan. 15, 2006 triumph at Virginia Tech.

Leitao has been preaching defense all season and the Cavaliers were ranked first in the ACC in field-goal percentage in conference games. Their opponents had shot 40.2 percent from the field in UVa's first five ACC games, a figure that dropped after State shot 31.7 percent Wednesday.

Virginia finished at 42.9 percent, but the Cavaliers shot 63.6 percent from the field in the second half, when they were 6-of-11 on 3-pointers and 14-of-22 overall.

Reynolds and Singletary were the only UVa players who scored more than six points, although senior Jason Cain contributed 12 rebounds, including eight in the second half.

UVa's road victory was only its fourth in ACC play during the careers of its two seniors, Reynolds and Cain.

It didn't hit Reynolds until the game ended that he had experienced victory twice at the RBC Center, where the Cavaliers defeated the Wolfpack 64-62 on a last-second putback by Singletary in 2005.

"I had forgotten about that till just now," said Reynolds, oblivious to the fact that State is 0-4 in ACC home games this year.

"It's big just to get a win on the road. Wins in this league don't come easy so you've got to take whatever you can get."