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Associated Press

Virginia's Mike Scott (right) drives to the basket as Florida State's Julian Vaughn defends on Wednesday.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Home or road. Football or basketball. Early or late.

Virginia's athletic teams can blow a lead any way you want.

The UVa men's basketball teams squandered 10-point leads in both halves Wednesday night in a 69-67 loss at Florida State.

The Cavaliers (11-6 overall, 1-3 ACC) have now lost three games by one or two points. Two hours to the east, UVa's football team had a similar collapse Jan. 1 in the Gator Bowl.

"It hurts when you feel like you've got a game in your pocket, and then you lose by two," UVa guard Calvin Baker said. "We've got to fix whatever the problem is and learn how to finish off a game."

The Cavaliers led 56-46 following a Sean Singletary breakaway and dunk with 8:56 left, but they did not score from the field on their next nine possessions. On three of those trips, they turned the ball over, with the Seminoles twice stripping Singletary.

"I felt a little slow," said Singletary, who injured a hip Saturday in the Cavaliers' 84-66 victory over Boston College, "but you can't make excuses. We had the game won, and I just didn't take care of the ball."

Singletary needed a 3-pointer as time expired to extend his streak of double-figure scoring games to 39, the longest active streak in the ACC. He finished with 11 points, seven assists and five turnovers.

"We knew he was the head of the snake and we had to chop off the head of the snake in order to win that game," Florida State senior Isaiah Swann said. "Toney [Douglas] did a helluva job on him."

Normally, the Cavs hope that one of their other veterans will have a good game. Wednesday Mamadi Diane finished with a season-high 21 points, and Adrian Joseph, who added 17,

"They were on," Singletary said. "They had us the game won. I take full responsibility for it. They played their hearts out."

UVa's performance had an eerie resemblance to a home loss to Virginia Tech exactly one week earlier, all the way down to an intentional foul that let the Seminoles to keep possession following a pair of free throws with 27.6 seconds left.

Virginia, which was trailing 63-62, was setting up for a go-ahead basket when Douglas took the ball from Singletary near midcourt. Douglas tried to take the ball to the basket before Jerome Meyinsse caught him from behind and was called for an intentional foul.

"I thought I swiped at the ball," Meyinsse said. "He was ahead of me and I just wanted to make sure he didn't get a three-point play. I feel like I made an attempt at the ball, but the referee from across the court said it was intentional."

UVa coach Dave Leitao said, "I'm not going to comment on a referee's call."

Florida State (13-7, 2-3) scored on its last seven possessions, with no shot bigger than a 3-pointer by Swann from the right wing that tied the score 60-60 with 2:25 left.

"We ran the play twice," Swann said. "The first time, Jason Rich got all the way to the basket. The second time, I think my man felt like he better help out, and he helped out a little too much. It was the best look I got all night."

Leitao substituted liberally in the first half; in fact, Florida State was able to erase an early 15-5 deficit when UVa's subs went in the game. Six reserves played a combined 24 minutes in the first half, going 0-for-3 from the field.

"Hence the long minutes for the guys who started the game," Leitao said. "I don't know if I remember Adrian ever playing 37 minutes, and Mo [Diane] asked twice to come out of the game, and that almost never happens.

"I thought fatigue played a part at the end. Defense comes before offense and you're asking guys to make stop after stop."

On the other hand, Singletary had more turnovers (two) in the final 2:40 Wednesday night than he had all night against Boston College (one).

"No disrespect to Florida State," Leitao said. "They're a strong, athletic perimeter team that can keep the ball in front of them, but Sean wasn't Sean today."

Virginia MP FG FT R A F PT

Joseph 37 12-7 0-0 8 1 0 17

Scott 15 6-2 2-1 3 0 1 5

Baker 34 11-3 2-0 0 3 3 7

Diane 37 12-6 4-4 5 0 2 21

Singletary 33 11-4 2-2 3 7 4 11

Jones 10 3-0 0-0 0 0 4 0

Tucker 2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Pettinella 12 1-1 0-0 3 0 4 2

Harris 2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Tat 4 2-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Meyinsse 14 2-2 0-0 3 0 4 4

Totals 200 60-25 10-7 33 11 22 67

Florida State MP FG FT R A F PT

Echefu 32 5-2 0-0 5 0 4 4

Reid 28 1-1 4-2 3 2 1 4

Mims 28 9-2 0-0 5 1 0 0

Douglas 36 11-7 4-3 6 2 1 19

Rich 28 9-5 6-5 4 2 4 17

Demercy 7 2-1 0-0 0 0 0 2

Swann 26 11-4 8-5 3 3 2 16

Vaughn 11 2-0 0-0 4 0 1 0

Hoff 1 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 2

Zitani 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Totals 200 50-22 24-17 32 10 14 64

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Virginia 28 39 -- 67

Florida State 31 38 -- 69

3-point goals: UVa 10-29 (Diani 5-9, Joseph 3-7, Baker 1-5, Singletary 1-5), Florida State 8-21 ( Rich Swann 3-7, 2-3, Douglas 2-5, Mims 1-6).

Turnovers: UVa 15 (Singletary 5, Baker 2, Joseph 2, Tucker 2, Pettinella 2, Jones 1, Diane 1), Florida State 17 (Echefu 5, Rich 5, Reid 3, Mims 1, Douglas 1, Demerrcy 1, Swann 1).

Blocked shots: UVa 0, Florida State 5 (Reid 2, Echefu 1, Mims 1, Demercy 1).

Steals: UVa 8 (Baker 2, Scott 1, Diane 1, Tat 1, Meyinsse 1, Jones 1, Singletary 1), Florida State 11 (Douglas 6, Reid 2, Mims 1, Demercy 1, Swann 1).

Officials: Mike Wood, Mike Eades, Tim Nestor.

Attendance: 7,314.