Wake Forest had the ball and a chance to win in the final seconds. Second-ranked UVA, known for its defense, got the stop it needed, forcing a Demon Deacons turnover as time expired, and the Cavs escaped with a 61-60 win Saturday afternoon.
Virginia (23-1, 11-1 ACC) trailed 31-24 at the half, but opened the second half on an extended 27-7 scoring lead to go up 13, 51-38, with 10:42 left on an and-one by Anthony Gill.
But then the ‘Hoos went cold from the floor, going a 5:06 stretch without a basket as Wake (12-14, 4-9 ACC) slowly climbed back into it.
It was still 56-50 UVA with 3:20 to go when the Deacons got a second wind. Back-to-back threes by Cornelius Hudson and Dinos Mitoglou cut into the margin, and a second Mitoglou three, with 40 seconds left, cut the deficit to one, at 60-59.
Gill made one of two free throws with 28.4 seconds left to extend the lead back to two. Codi Miller-McIntyre hit one of two with 17 seconds left, and Wake rebounded the miss on the second toss, and coach Danny Manning called timeout to set up a final shot.
Miller-McIntyre took the inbounds pass and tried to run two screen-and-roll plays, but Virginia defended both well, and Brogdon stripped the ball away with one second to prevent Wake Forest from being able to get even a desperation shot.
Gill had 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting for UVA, which shot 45.3 percent (24-of-53) for the game.
Mitoglou had 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from three-point land to lead Wake, which shot 43.2 percent and was 10-for-24 as a team from the bonusphere.
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Chris Graham
