Associated Press

Virginia's Sammy Zeglinski shoots the ball against VMI's Keith Grabriel on Sunday.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Three days earlier, VMI might have felt differently about a 10-point loss at Virginia.

When you've opened the season with a victory over Kentucky at Rupp Arena, it creates a whole new set of standards.

"We weren't looking for a moral victory," said VMI senior Chavis Holmes, who scored a game-high 31 points Sunday in a 107-97 loss at John Paul Jones Arena.

Less than 48 hours after beating Kentucky 111-103, the Keydets overcame a 16-point, first-half deficit to force an 82-82 tie with 6:47 remaining Sunday.

Holmes missed the second of two free throws that could have given the Keydets the lead and the Cavaliers responded with a 10-2 spurt fueled by two Jeff Jones 3-pointers.

Jones had been watching the Kentucky-VMI game in Virginia's team room Friday night while several teammates were courtside at the UVa women's opener.

"I went out there and got them," Jones said. "I told them, 'You guys have got to see this!' "

The Keydets' victory certainly got Virginia's attention, so much so that coach Dave Leitao changed his starting lineup.

Leitao, who had started 6-foot-11, 250-pound Tunji Soroye in an exhibition against Division II Shepherd, decided he needed to go with a smaller lineup.

Soroye was replaced by 6-6 freshman Sylven Landesberg, a McDonald's All-American who was the centerpiece of UVa's recruiting class.

"Right before we came out for warmups, he was like, 'This is who's going to be guarding who,' " Landesberg said. "My name just appeared on the board. I was surprised."

Landesberg's surprise didn't prevent him from scoring seven of Virginia's first 15 points. He finished with 28 points, the high for a first-year UVa player in his debut since freshman eligibility was approved for the 1973-74 season.

Landesberg, who logged a team-high 36 minutes, also contributed eight rebounds and eight assists.

"When you flirt with a triple-double right out of the box, that tells you something," Leitao said.

Leitao had hoped to be able to use 6-9 sophomore Mike Scott at power forward this season, but Scott moved to center for Sunday's game and finished with career highs of 26 points and 18 rebounds. His 10 offensive rebounds tied a school record shared by Matt Blundin, Bryant Stith and Travis Watson.

"Coach told me I would probably be playing some 'five' this season," said Scott, who was 11-of-13 from the field. "All I want is to be in position to rebound."

Leitao was determined not to let his team get off to a slow start, having seen Kentucky fall behind by 21 points in the first half. He got his wish when Virginia grabbed a 30-14 lead with 12:21 left in the first half.

Sloppy ball-handling and VMI's pressure led to 16 first-half turnovers by UVa and the Cavaliers saw the Keydets trim the margin to four points on three occasions before going into halftime down 51-45.

Another 16-turnover half would have spelled doom for Virginia, but the Cavaliers started to protect the ball and committed only four turnovers during the final 20 minutes.

That helped offset VMI's 51.3-percent shooting in the second half.

The first Virginia player singled out by VMI coach Duggar Baucom was redshirt freshman point guard Sammy Zeglinski, who played 31 minutes off the bench and had 11 points and six rebounds, compared to three turnovers.

"Zeglinski had a great game, I thought," Baucom said. "He handled our pressure very well. We were able to impose our will more Friday night than we were today. We actually got out of our pressure for a little bit because he was just dicing us up."

It was a credit to VMI that Leitao elected to try and beat the Keydets at their game, rather than stay with big men who couldn't guard the Keydets on the perimeter.

"We do that to some teams," Baucom said. "I hate they started Landesberg. He had an awesome game. It probably helped them, with two days to prepare, to know what we were going to do a little bit."

Soroye did not play and neither did the Cavaliers' two freshmen centers, John Brandenburg and Assane Sene. UVa announced before the game that Sene would be held out of action until an issue about his eligibility is resolved.

The Cavaliers are attempting to rebuild following the departure of three-time All-ACC choice Sean Singletary and have only one returning double-figure scorer, Mamadi Diane.

"This team was going to force us to score," Leitao said. "I told the team, 'Let's score 100 and not let them score 100.' "

The Keydets have lost 24 straight games to Virginia dating back to 1964-65 and you'd have to go back to 1977 to find a UVa-VMI game decided by fewer than 10 points.

"As a coach, the happiest thing about this whole thing is that my guys are upset that they didn't win the game today," Baucom said, "I'm not sure that's always been the mindset."

VMI MP FG FT R A F PT

Bell 31 6-8 2-2 6 3 4 14

Burks 20 0-2 0-0 3 2 3 0

C. Holmes 37 11-20 6-7 5 3 3 31

Kenon 23 7-13 2-2 5 2 4 18

T. Holmes 30 7-11 4-4 4 4 5 20

Brownfield 8 0-2 0-0 0 1 3 0

Gabriel 31 6-18 0-0 4 1 4 14

Sparks 20 0-5 0-0 2 1 2 0

Whiting 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 200 37-79 14-15 35 17 28 97

Virginia MP FG FT R A F PT

Diane 27 6-15 2-3 7 1 3 14

Scott 30 11-13 4-5 18 0 2 26

Farrakhan 11 1-5 0-0 0 0 0 2

Baker 21 2-4 0-0 5 7 1 4

Landesberg 36 10-17 8-11 8 8 2 28

Tucker 17 6-8 2-4 3 0 2 14

Zeglinski 31 4-9 2-5 4 6 4 11

Jones 27 3-8 0-0 3 2 0 8

Totals 200 43-79 18-28 50 24 14 107

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

VMI 45 52 -- 97

Virginia 51 56 -- 107

3-point goals: VMI 9-31 (Bell 0-1, Burks 0-1, C. Holmes 3-7, Kenon 2-7, T. Holmes 2-3, Brownfield 0-1, Gabriel 2-9, Sparks 0-2), Virginia 3-16 (Diane 0-4, Farrakhan 0-1, Baker 0-1, Landesberg 0-2, Tucker 0-1, Zeglinski 1-2, Jones 2-5).

Turnovers: VMI 19 (T. Holmes 6), Virginia 20 (Baker 5).

Blocked shots: VMI 3 (Gabriel 3), Virginia 4 (Diane 1, Tucker 1, Zeglinski 1, Jones 1).

Steals: VMI 15 (Bell 4), Virginia 12 (Baker 4).

Officials: Ayers, Eades, Nichols.

Attendance: 9,955.