The hangover effect from Virginia’s huge win Monday at Duke may have been the biggest concern of Cavaliers fans entering Saturday’s tilt against Georgia Tech.
It didn’t take long for Virginia to dispatch those concerns, with the ‘Hoos racing out to a 22-6 lead on the Yellow Jackets 10 minutes in.
Then things changed, and the Cavaliers were in a rock fight the rest of the way before winning, 63-53. And it was more of a nail-biter than the final score indicated.
Down by as many as 17 points in the first half, Tech closed the lead to as few as two points in the second half.
Georgia Tech, in a 79-70 loss at Miami on Wednesday, led by as many as 14 points in the first half before the Hurricanes overcame the deficit by intermission.
Virginia (16-9, 10-5 ACC) won its fourth straight and is continuing to look increasingly like an NCAA Tournament team.
Tonight in JPJ, the Cavaliers also continued their dominance of Georgia Tech, winning their 17th matchup with Tech (10-14, 3-10 ACC) out of the last 19, including nine straight in Charlottesville.
Virginia is the only ACC opponent Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner has yet to win against.
Virginia, leading by as many as 17 points in the opening half, still led at the break 32-19. The 19 was the Yellow Jackets’ lowest scoring first half of the season.
Georgia Tech made a game of it with an 11-0 run that cut the Virginia lead to six, and it would get as close as two with 5:44 to go when Michael Devoe connected from three.
Virginia held Georgia Tech to six points the rest of the way, and Virginia got a big three from Kihei Clark and went 6-of-6 at the line in the final 1:06 to close it out.
Virginia has now won at least 10 conference games for the 10th straight season, and for a team that played the win-one, lose-win outcome for a stretch, now has won four in a row, the longest streak of the season.
The result for Virginia this afternoon was that in a high-stakes game, the Cavaliers took care business. While Georgia Tech wasn’t UVA’s toughest remaining opponent, they were the next, which made it a must-win.
With the win Virginia, held serve; a loss, and the Cavaliers tournament chances would have taken a big hit.
Virginia survived some shaky play at times today, but now appears to be a team that can work through some rough spots and still survive. For much of the season that simply didn’t exist. Now, the maturity and team chemistry are surfacing, and the program’s legacy is emerging.
Story by Scott German
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