Home UVA Basketball: Late rally falls short, Virginia Tech holds on for 75-74 win
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UVA Basketball: Late rally falls short, Virginia Tech holds on for 75-74 win

Chris Graham
uva basketball jacob cofie
UVA Basketball forward Jacob Cofie. Photo: Mike Ingalls/AFP

UVA Basketball (10-11, 3-7 ACC) hosts Virginia Tech (9-12, 4-6 ACC) on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET (ACC Network).

This game has the makings of the Friday noon game at your YMCA. (With apologies to the old guys who play on Fridays at noon at your YMCA.)

Somebody has to win.

One of these teams may very well get a bid to the 2025 ACC Tournament.

First half


First media timeout: Tech 8, UVA 6, 15:54/1st

Blake Buchanan, getting the start for Elijah Saunders, who still has the boot on his left foot, picked up two cheapies, and will be glued to the bench for the rest of the half.

He had 16 points and nine boards at Miami. Big loss.

Dai Dai Ames still doesn’t funnel guys back to the pack. We’re in Game 22 now. They’ve obviously decided to just let him do what he does, even though it hurts the D when he’s on the floor.


Second media timeout: Tech 17, UVA 13, 11:30/1st

Ron Sanchez got a technical coming out of the timeout. It didn’t work.

Virginia has gotten mauled on a couple of drives to the basket, no calls. On the other end, UVA’s bigs are getting cheapies 20 feet from the basket.

I’m about to get T’d up.


Third media timeout: Tech 24, UVA 21, 7:26/1st

A third cheapie on Buchanan. Odd that Sanchez went back to him.

With foul trouble in the post, Sanchez is using Taine Murray as a small-ball four.


Fourth media timeout: Tech 31, UVA 25, 3:26/1st

Tech is 4-of-7 from three and 4-of-10 at the rim. And getting to the line: 7-of-8.

Virginia is 3-of-11 from three and 2-of-7 at the rim. Not getting to the line: 2-of-2.

Half: Virginia Tech 38, UVA 31


Not Ran Sanchez’s finest hour as a coach: he left Buchanan out there to get an early second foul, then sent him back out to get a third foul.

The calls on both were awful, but we know the refs are awful.

Then he lifted Ishan Sharma with 2:01 to go after Sharma had had a nice run – he’s got eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, 2-of-3 from three, in 11 minutes – to go back to Andrew Rohde, who is playing obviously limited with the right calf injury, and even had to go to the locker room mid-game for treatment.

Rohde didn’t score in the first half – 0-of-3 FG, o-of-1 3FG, with two assists in 13 minutes.

Second half


First media timeout: Tech 46, UVA 43, 14:50/2nd

Tech has led by as many as eight this half. Virginia is getting offense in transition.

UVA has a 9-0 edge in fast-break points.


Second media timeout: Tech 55, UVA 46, 12:44/2nd

Tech is 10-of-17 from three. Season: 36.3 percent.

Season average makes from three: 7.9.

The law of averages suggests that a cool-off is coming.


Third media timeout: Tech 64, UVA 56, 7:37/2nd

Sharma, who had that big first half, just checked in for the first time in the second half at the 8:50 mark.

That, plus the Buchanan first-half flub, coaching malpractice.

Virginia is shooting 55.6 percent with one turnover this half, and is down an extra point from where we were at the half.

No defense: Tech is averaging 1.422 points per possession.

Coming in: Tech was averaging 1.076 PPP, ranking 158th nationally.

Fourth media timeout: Tech 69, UVA 63, 3:02/2nd


Sanchez went zone on two possessions, and got a turnover that led to a fast break and a miss that led to a free throw.

Then went back to man.

Final: Virginia Tech 75, UVA 74


Virginia, down 13 with 6:52 to go, actually had a shot on the rim that rolled off at the buzzer that would have won it.

In spite of the coaching.

Sanchez went zone on the two possessions I wrote about above, then scrapped it.

After scrapping it, Tech went heavy on the pick-and-roll to get Ames switched on Tobi Lawal, and on two straight possessions, Lawal backed him down and made buckets.

Ames also got used by Ben Hammond on a dribble-drive.

I wrote above about him being a defensive liability.

Ames did have 11 points. He gave up at least as many.

Ishan Sharma got 2:07 of action in the second half after going for eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, 2-of-3 from three.

Can’t figure that one out.

Sanchez will be saying in the postgame that it was coach’s decision.

It was also a coach’s decision to send Blake Buchanan back out in the first half with two fouls, and he picked up his third.

We got 16 and 9 from him at Miami; got four and four in 15 minutes today.

Jacob Cofie had four points and six boards, and was a sieve on the defensive end, in 27 minutes.

All of this, plus, Tech was 11-of-21 from three – season, they’re 36.3 percent, which would translate to about eight makes.

And Virginia had the ball on the rim at the buzzer that would have won the game.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].