The Virginia Cavaliers lost an absolute heartbreaker on Saturday night, falling to the Duke Blue Devils, 74-70, in the ACC Tournament championship game.
After a no-show performance in Durham on February 28th, the ’Hoos looked like an entirely different squad in round two against the Blue Devils, using the momentum of Friday night’s 22-point semifinal win over Miami to take the nation’s top-ranked team to the wire.
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It takes a complete performance, however, to top a team like Duke — which has a strong case to be the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament — and a string of costly mistakes down the stretch doomed Virginia in the final game of an exciting ACC Tournament inside the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
This one will take a minute to forget for Wahoo fans, but for now, here are three takeaways from a nail-biting evening:
The little things made all the difference down the stretch
With 3:10 to play in the second half, Thijs De Ridder knocked down a free throw to knot the score at 66. The ’Hoos had put themselves in position to take down the regular-season ACC champs, but due to a few costly mistakes, that would be the closest Virginia came to a win.
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On the ensuing Blue Devils possession, Isaiah Evans missed a deep three, but UVA failed to get a body on Cayden Boozer (who finished with 16 points and five rebounds), allowing an easy offensive rebound and putback layup.
With a chance to re-tie the score or take the lead on its next possession, Virginia was unable to get any penetration, and Dallin Hall seemed to lose track of time as the shot clock ticked down. Hall lobbed a grenade pass to Sam Lewis, whose desperation three was tipped, resulting in a shot clock violation.
On the other side of the floor, Virginia’s mistakes continued to compound. De Ridder committed an unnecessary off-ball foul on Evans, who canned a pair of free throws to put Duke up by four with 1:59 to play.
Following a putback layup by Ugonna Onyenso that cut the deficit to two points, Cameron Boozer left the door wide open for Virginia by missing a pair of free throws with 1:15 on the clock. With a chance to even the score, however, Malik Thomas answered with a missed free throw of his own on the front end of a one-and-one, all but sealing the Cavaliers’ fate.
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One final mishap, in which, following another Duke offensive rebound, the ’Hoos let precious seconds tick off the clock before finally fouling Evans with 12 seconds left, officially closed the book on Virginia’s chances.
The ’Hoos fought, and they deserve a ton of credit for giving Duke their best shot. But when it mattered most, Virginia couldn’t quite make the plays necessary to deal the knockout blow. In the end, a couple of forgotten box-outs, a missed free throw, and a few seconds of wasted time were the difference between a signature win and a gut-wrenching loss.
Ugonna Onyenso was the best player on the court
Cameron Boozer was the ACC Player of the Year, and he was awarded the ACC Tournament MVP after Duke’s win, but he wasn’t the best player on the floor on Saturday evening. That would be Virginia center Ugonna Onyenso.
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The 7-footer from Owerri, Nigeria, scored six points (2-4 FG), had eight rebounds, and recorded an ACC Tournament title game record nine blocks against the Blue Devils. Onyenso had already set the record for total blocks in an ACC Tournament before Saturday night’s game even started, but after another incredible defensive effort, he finished his week with 21 swatted shots.
Onyenso’s impact on the defensive end was truly special. Tasked with guarding Cam Boozer, a projected top-three pick in the upcoming NBA Draft and the frontrunner for national player of the year honors this season, UVA’s big man stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park.
Big Boozer finished just 3-of-17 from the field, as Onyenso forced the Duke star into countless uncomfortable looks and rejected his shots multiple times at the rim. With Caleb Foster out for the foreseeable future, Boozer operated as the de facto point guard for the Blue Devils. But even with Boozer starting most possessions at the top of the key, Onyenso was able to range away from the rim, check him, and virtually shut him down.
Onyenso’s evening put the finishing touches on a week in Charlotte that earned him a selection to the All-Tournament First-Team. And moving forward, Virginia seems to have fully unlocked one of the nation’s most versatile defensive weapons heading into the NCAA Tournament.
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On to March Madness
This one stung, there’s no doubt about it. Virginia was three good minutes away from avenging its humiliating loss in Durham, sticking it to the Blue Devils in front of a decidedly Duke-heavy Charlotte crowd, and earning its fourth ACC Tournament title in program history. Instead, the ’Hoos received, undeniably, the biggest gut-punch of the season.
But Virginia cannot let this be a demoralizing defeat. Despite the loss, the ’Hoos have played their best basketball of the season over the past three days. If Virginia can bottle these past few performances, the ’Hoos are certainly capable of making a run in the NCAA Tournament.
Don’t forget, (as of late Saturday night) UVA is up to 13th at Kenpom, 12th in the NET, and has a 17-4 record in Quads 1 and 2 with two more wins over projected tournament teams this week to add to its resume.
The ’Hoos will find out where they’ll be seeded during the Selection Show on Sunday evening, which airs at 5 PM EST on CBS.
