MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Virginia's Mustapha Farrakhan makes a two-point shot past Tech's A.D. Vassallo in the first half. Farrakhan scored 15 points in the last five minutes and finished with a career-high 17 in the loss.

BLACKSBURG -- When it seemed as if the Virginia-Virginia Tech men's basketball game was over, Mustapha Farrakhan was just getting started Saturday.

Farrakhan, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Harvey, Ill., scored 15 points in the final 4:42 but a Cavaliers' rally fell short in a 78-75 defeat at Cassell Coliseum.

UVa trailed by 15 points with less than five minutes remaining, 66-51, but got as close as 76-75 on a Jamil Tucker 3-pointer with 3 seconds left.

Farrakhan might have taken that shot if he hadn't fouled out with 9.3 seconds to go.

He finished with a career-high 17 points in 12 minutes, and he was actually out of the game for more than a minute during his late-game barrage.

After he was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws with 2:16 remaining, Farrakhan came out of the game and did not return until there was 1:00 on the clock.

He quickly drained another 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 72-70 with 49.7 remaining.

"I've seen it before," said UVa coach Dave Leitao, who was effusive over Farrakhan's shooting ability before he ever played in a game for the Cavaliers. "Getting it from where I've seen it [in practice] to seeing it in games is where all the guys need to do a better job."

Farrakhan was 2-for-16 on 3-pointers as a freshman, when his overall 18.4 shooting percentage led to a steady decline in his playing time.

Some were surprised when Farrakhan didn't transfer after his freshman year.

"Sometimes it comes in your mind," said Farrakhan, grandson of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

"I just try to stay positive and leave that as far out of my mind as possible. Sometimes you might hear that [in conversation] but I try not to fill my head up with all that."

Farrakhan was surprised that he didn't have more of an impact as a freshman.

"I came out and played in the first exhibition game and, after that, minutes came real hard," he said. "It was just a learning experience. A lot of people have to go through it, I guess."

Farrakhan's father, also named Mustapha, was at the game Saturday and attends many of the Cavaliers' games.

"I talk to my dad about seven times a day," said Little 'Mu,' as he is known to family members. "That's my best friend. My dad's always been one to stay positive and [tell me] to stay in it mentally, say my prayers every night and just go to practice and work."

It would be misleading to call Saturday's performance his breakout game because Farrakhan has been a different player since a Dec. 23 game with Hampton, when he scored a career-high 10 points.

He followed that with a 12-point outing in UVa's 88-84 overtime victory over Georgia Tech and is averaging 10.6 points over the last five games without having played more than 16 minutes in any of them.

"Coach Leitao would always call me a 'perfectionist' last year," said Farrakhan, who is 11-for-21 on 3-pointers this year and has made all 16 of his free throws. "If something wasn't going right, I would think about it a little too much and he would tell me, 'Let it roll off. Don't let it snowball.'"

The Cavaliers (7-6, 1-1 ACC) scored on each of their last 10 possessions Saturday, but it was a little too late. The game got away during a 2:19 stretch when the Hokies (10-5, 1-1) outscored the Cavaliers 9-0.

On an afternoon when the Cavaliers shot 52.7 percent and outrebounded the Hokies 33-32, they also committed 17 turnovers to Tech's 11.

"When you don't win, you can pick your poison," said Leitao, whose teams have now lost four of their last five games with Tech. "If you look at one thing like that as a cause, I think you go about it the wrong way."

Freshman Sylven Landesberg had six of the turnovers but finished with a team-high 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

What also hurt was reliable free-throw shooters Sammy Zeglinski and Mike Scott going to the free-throw line in the second half and both missing both ends of two-shot opportunities.

"You've got to make free throws on the road and can't just give away points like that," Zeglinski said.

"We knew it would be a tough game coming in here and just made too many mistakes."