MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Virginia's Mustapha Farrakhan (2) battles for a loose ball with Virginia Tech's Eric Green (left) and Terrell Bell (right) Thursday during the Hokies' 76-71 overtime win in Charlottesville.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Part of Sylven Landesberg's offseason practice routine involves boxing, and he turned to the fight game for an analogy following Virginia's 76-71 basketball loss to Virginia Tech.

The Cavaliers couldn't protect a 10-point lead in the final three minutes of regulation, got a reprieve when a desperation 3-pointer sent the game into overtime, then failed to seize the momentum before a John Paul Jones Arena crowd of 13,449.

"There were a lot of points in the game where I felt we were just ready to throw a knockout punch," Landesberg said, "but they just kept fighting back. You can't sleep on a team like that."

Landesberg finished with 18 points and five assists but also was charged with a season-high six turnovers. He missed both of his free-throw attempts, including a one-and-one with the Hokies leading 68-65 early in the overtime.

"Sometimes I just felt like I had to make a play happen," Landesberg said. "I just didn't want the game to get out of hand and I also tried to force it, I guess."

Landesberg also picked up two fouls in the first half for the second game in a row. On Saturday, he sat for the final 12:28 of the first half at Wake Forest and the Deacons ended the half on a 14-0 run.

Coach Tony Bennett said at the time that he might have to reconsider his practice of sitting a player after his second foul in the first half, but there was no hesitation Thursday in pulling Landesberg after he picked up his second foul with 4:29 left.

Later, Bennett and Landesberg both minimized the impact of the time Landesberg spent on the bench on the first half but the Hokies, who trailed 22-13 at the time, went on a 15-5 run to take a 28-27 lead into halftime.

Bennett didn't hesitate to discuss the topic Saturday but was much shorter this time.

"You're always going to take a guy out when he gets his second foul," Bennett said. "I can't remember at what point it was, but, at the time, it never crossed my mind, 'I've got to put him back in.'

"They made a run on us, but it was transition baskets, too. That's something in this league that will test you and test you."

Junior Mike Scott led the Cavaliers with 21 points, including 14 in the first half, but he took only four shots from the field in 23 minutes during the second half and overtime.

"We tried to run a few things to get him the next look," Bennett said. "Sometimes, we just didn't make the next pass."

Reserve guard Jeff Jones was UVa's third double-figure scorer, with 12 points, but missed a 3-pointer in transition with the Cavaliers leading 62-52 with 3:10 remaining.

"It's a dagger if [Jones] makes it," Bennett said, "but the wise decision would have been to pull that out and he knew that once he shot it. That's when you certainly want to milk the clock. If it had gone, we would have been talking about what guts he had to take it."

Jones was fairly wide-open again when he missed an 18-foot jumper from the corner with 1:10 left and UVa leading 62-61. Two Tech buckets put the Hokies ahead 65-62 before UVa's Sammy Zeglinski connected on a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left in regulation.

From Bennett on down, the Cavaliers felt Zeglinski's shot gave them the momentum going into overtime, but Tech scored the first five points in overtime.

As to whether Landesberg feels he needs to do too much, Zeglinski said,

"Sylven's a great player. I'm never going to challenge his game or his decision-making. They did a good job on him. They flooded him when he got to the lane."

Virginia (12-6 overall, 3-2) had suffered three of its previous losses by five points or fewer but many felt that Thursday night's affair was the toughest to take.

"All I can is, that's not us," Jones said.