With two minutes to go in the second half, junior guard Sam Lewis rose from the top of the arc, releasing a three-point shot to extend Virginia’s lead over Miami to 26. The make acted as a catalyst for Coach Ryan Odom to clear the bench, triggering silent, knowing celebrations from the Cavaliers’ starters as the path to the ACC final became a certain one.
The No. 2-seed Cavaliers (28-4, 15-3 ACC) blitzed the No. 3-seed Hurricanes (25-7, 13-5 ACC) with a devastating closing stretch in the first half and did not look back, rolling to a definitive 84-62 victory in the ACC Tournament semifinals Friday night at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.
The 22-point margin was a stark reversal from the teams’ last matchup in February — a white-knuckle affair decided by free throws in the final seconds — and the victory sends the Cavaliers to their first ACC championship game since 2023 and their 11th in program history.
“Last time we played these guys, they beat us up on the glass,” Odom said postgame. “They scored it well. It was really hard for us defensively in that game.”
This time around was a different story. The opening four minutes at Spectrum Center were a rock fight. Both defenses clamped down hard, the teams combining to shoot just 8-for-28 in the first 10 minutes as neither side was able to find clean looks. Virginia’s first bucket did not come until four minutes in, when graduate guard Jacari White converted a layup to make it 2-4.
But for most of the first half, offense remained scarce, and a three-point drought defined the early going. Miami’s first made three did not come until 12 minutes into the first half, when junior guard Tru Washington connected to tie the game at 15-15 — the first triple by either team.
Virginia did not make a three until freshman forward Thijs De Ridder buried one with just under three minutes to go in the first half, going 0-for-7 from deep before that. The Cavaliers were 3-for-13 from beyond the arc in the opening period — Miami was an ice-cold 1-for-10.
None of it mattered though, because Virginia was winning the game in the paint and at the free-throw line. After a standout performance in the quarterfinal, senior center Ugonna Onyenso was back for more. The big man was a force from the jump, going 5-for-5 from the field in the first half with three blocks and anchoring a defense that held Miami to 32 percent shooting before the break.
“He's a great player, great shot blocker, so it allows us to get into the ball a little bit more freely and play more loosely because we know we have him to protect us on the backside,” freshman guard Chance Mallory said postgame.
The game’s decisive stretch came in the final minutes of the first half. With just over five remaining, a crisp passing sequence found Onyenso for a midrange jumper to knot the score at 17 apiece. Two possessions later, Mallory assisted an Onyenso layup to give Virginia a 19-17 lead — the start of a stretch that would blow the game open.
With Virginia ahead 21-17 after a quartet of Mallory free throws, the Cavaliers reeled off a huge scoring run to close the half. A near shot-clock violation by Miami ended with an Onyenso block and De Ridder rebound, allowing a chance in transition for De Ridder at the perimeter.
Although the Belgian missed from three, graduate guard Dallin Hall crashed the glass and tipped it in to make it 30-21. Two possessions later, Hall found Onyenso with a no-look feed for a thunderous dunk to make it 35-23, bringing the Cavalier contingent in Charlotte to their feet.
But the exclamation point belonged to Mallory — with just three seconds left in the half, Mallory picked the pocket of Miami senior guard Tre Donaldson, pushed ahead in transition and buried a stepback three as the buzzer sounded.
Virginia 38, Miami 23 — the Hurricanes’ lowest-scoring first half of the 2025-26 season.
The Cavaliers’ defense was ruthless in the opening 20 minutes. Virginia’s doubling strategy on senior forward Malik Reneau — who torched the Cavaliers for 16 points in the February meeting — worked perfectly. Reneau finished with just eight points on 1-for-6 shooting with three turnovers.
“He's just a really good player, and if you leave him alone one-on-one, he'll do damage,” Odom said. “I thought our guys did a nice job, shy a couple possessions at the beginning of the game, of being ready for their attack against it. But the key was just getting it out of his hands.”
The second half offered only flickers of hope for the Hurricanes. Back-to-back three-pointers from junior guard Noam Dovrat cut the deficit to 13 midway through the period, and a putback from freshman forward Shelton Henderson off a turnover trimmed it to 11 — the closest Miami would get after halftime.
Virginia punched back every time. Graduate guard Malik Thomas answered with an all-net three of his own to restore the 16-point cushion. Lewis, who had been quieter in the first period, caught fire and drilled four second-half threes to finish with 16 points on the night — including the dagger from the top of the arc that booked Miami’s plane ticket home.
“It's important to respond when they have their runs because they're a good team that is capable of having their runs,” Thomas said. “So answering back was huge.”
Five Cavaliers reached double figures. Onyenso led the way with 17 points on a hyper-efficient 8-of-9 shooting, including a three-pointer from the seven-footer to open the second half. Coming off an eight-block performance against NC State, Onyenso swatted four shots, giving him a tournament-record 12 blocks across two games with the finals still to come. De Ridder and Lewis each posted 16, Thomas added 15 and Mallory chipped in 12 points, five rebounds and six assists off the bench.
Virginia dominated the glass 38-26, a dramatic turnaround from the February meeting in which Miami outrebounded the Cavaliers 30-23. The Cavaliers held a Miami team that had been shooting 48 percent from three over its previous three games to just 4-for-20 from deep, and generated nine fast break points to the Hurricanes' two.
The victory gives Odom a career-high 29 wins, surpassing the 28 he posted at VCU in 2024-25. Remarkably, Odom has advanced to his conference's championship game in each of the last four seasons, across three different programs.
The Cavaliers will look to clinch the conference trophy Saturday at 8:30 p.m. — a rematch with No. 1-seed Duke awaits them. It will be Virginia’s first shot at an ACC Tournament crown since claiming one in 2018.
“Just go out there and be present — I think that's super important in environments like this, is to really just be in the moment, control what you can control, let things fall how they will,” Hall said. “That's what we did [in] this game very well.”
Read More
Virginia lacrosse enters half-season tilt against No. 10 Maryland in need of a win
By Drew Dillman | 1 hours agoIn order to avoid a season similar to last year’s 6-8 final record — the first losing season of Lars Tiffany’s 10-year tenure at Virginia — the Cavaliers must find a way to win this afternoon in College Park, Md.
No. 2 men’s tennis cruises past No. 49 Duke 4-1 to remain undefeated in ACC play
By Margaret Piatos | 2 hours agoNo. 2 Virginia defeated No. 49 Duke 4-1 Friday afternoon at the Boar’s Head Sports Club, using a strong doubles start and commanding singles performances to remain unbeaten at home and in conference play.
Against a hobbled No. 1 Duke, No. 10 Virginia can earn both revenge and silverware
By Thomas Baxter | 2 hours agoTwo weeks. Two weeks since the biggest loss of Coach Ryan Odom’s tenure in Charlottesville, and the Cavaliers (29-4, 15-3 ACC) will again meet the Blue Devils (31-2, 17-1 ACC), this time at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. at 8:30 p.m.
