Virginia led Virginia Tech 59-55 at the under-eight timeout, and the way the game was playing, neither team getting stops, it looked like it was coming down to the final two minutes.
That was before the Cavalanche.
Virginia scored nine points in a 59-second flurry coming out of the timeout, and finally got a series of stops on the defensive end, keying what turned into a 78-68 win in front of a raucous sellout crowd at the John Paul Jones Arena on Wednesday.
The fan base included, for the night, 2019 UVA Basketball alum Ty Jerome and Golden State Warriors teammates Steph Curry and Moses Moody, sitting front row center court opposite the scorers’ table.
The NBA guys were treated to an NBA-level game on offense for the bulk of the night.
Highlights
Both teams were over 50 percent in the first half as Virginia (14-3, 6-2 ACC) got out to a 40-31 lead at the break, the punctuation mark coming on a vicious throwdown by Reece Beekman, a projected 2023 first-round draft pick.
A short Jayden Gardner jumper got the lead to 11 41 seconds into the second half, but the Hokies (11-7, 1-6 ACC) didn’t go away.
A 13-4 Tech run got the margin down to two, at 46-44, on a Darius Maddox three at the 15:17 mark.
It would stay close to that under-8 timeout.
Virginia came out of the timeout with a play that got Kihei Clark open on the wing for a three, which he drained to get the lead back to seven.
Beekman stole a pass from Hunter Cattoor on Tech’s next possession, leading to a breakout that ended with a Gardner and-one, and a 10-point UVA lead.
After a short jumper by MJ Collins got the Hokies back within eight, Virginia answered with a three by Isaac McKneely that got the ‘Hoos back on top by 11, at 68-57, with 6:38 left.
The closest it would get from there would be eight, on two different occasions, the final time on a Cattoor three with 2:16 to go.
Inside the box score
Both teams put all five of their starters in double figures.
Virginia got 20 points and five assists from Clark, 15 points (on 6-of-9 shooting) from Armaan Franklin, 12 points (on 5-of-6 shooting) from Gardner, 11 points and seven assists from Beekman, and 10 points and seven rebounds from Ben Vander Plas, who again got the start at the five, for the second straight game.
On the Virginia Tech side, Maddox had 13 points (on 5-of-9 shooting). Grant Basile had 12, Cattoor, in his first game back after missing the last four with an elbow injury, had 11, and Sean Pedulla and Justyn Mutts had 10 each.
Mutts contributed his usual stuff-the-boxscore game. He also had seven assists and six boards.
The Hokies shot 49.1 percent on the night, but in the closing stretch, from the under-eight timeout on, they were just 5-of-13 from the floor.
Virginia shot 50.9 percent from the floor, and had a big advantage at the free throw line – connecting on 12-of-13 at the stripe, while Tech was just 2-of-2.
Box score
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Chris Graham
