CHARLOTTESVILLE – For one night at least, Virginia looked right.
Merrimack transfer center Jordan Miner started for the second straight game and had his best performance at UVa, grabbing 16 points and five rebounds, neutralizing Virginia Tech center Lynn Kidd and allowing Kidd a single basket. The Cavaliers defeated the rival Hokies (65-57), improving to 10-0 at home this season.
Dating back to last season, the Cavaliers have won 20 straight games at John Paul Jones Arena, the second-longest home winning streak in the nation.
Senior point guard Reece Beekman had 16 points, four assists, four steals and four rebounds, and UVa played its most Virginia-like defense in weeks, holding the Hokies to 39.6 percent from the floor and forcing 15 turnovers. Ta.
Guard Dante Harris, who missed the past 10 games with a sprained right ankle, also returned and was productive offensively with five points and five assists, and defensively with on-ball work.
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“Jordan Minor's physicality and Dante's athletic ability to protect the ball were outstanding,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “It's been a long time.”
The Cavaliers (12-5, 3-3 ACC) did very well, and when Beekman threw an alley-oop pass to Ryan Dunn, the ball was sucked into the basket and it was 60-50 with 1:16 left. I took the lead. .
Virginia took a five-point lead midway through the first half and then kept the Hokies close for the remainder of the period.
Tech (10-7, 2-4) got within five points again with 5:40 remaining, but the Cavaliers fought back with a 6-0 run to seal the victory and end the Hokies' ACC woes. It got even deeper.
Tech guard Sean Pedulla, who had scored 91 points in the previous three games, had 18 points on Wednesday and committed seven of the Hokies' turnovers.
“We were pretty coordinated in the first half,” Bennett said. “They missed some open shots. Maybe they took too many open looks, but we came up with some stops when needed.”
Both teams have lost three of their last four games and are tied at 2-3 in the ACC standings. And both had injured players return to the rivalry showdown.
Guard Hunter Cattore, who missed the Hokies' loss to Miami on Saturday due to a concussion suffered in last week's game against Clemson, returned to practice on Tuesday and started against UVa.
Kattoa scored 12 points.
For the Cavaliers, Harris, a transfer from Georgetown, returned and started off the bench, a role he played before his injury.
For the second straight game, UVa started Minor, who played against Kidd and scored four of the Cavaliers' first six points.
The Hokies came out and made 3-of-5 3-pointers in the first five minutes to take a 9-6 lead. However, Virginia played one of the best defensive halves of the season, forcing Tech into 10 turnovers before intermission, helping them take a 25-18 lead into the locker room.
After getting off to a hot start, Tech missed its next six 3-pointers until Cattore knocked down one just before the halftime buzzer.
The 18 first-half points were the fewest for the Hokies this season and the first time they failed to score 20 points in a first half since a game at Notre Dame in 2020.
The Cavaliers went on a 9-0 run early in the second half, led by a fast-break alley-oop dunk from Beekman to Ryan Dunn, building a 34-21 lead with 16 minutes, 25 seconds left.
Tech went on an 8-0 spurt, with five of those points coming from Pedulla, to cut Virginia's lead to 36-31 with 13:31 remaining.
UVa responded with tough, contested baskets from two unlikeable players. First, freshman center Blake Buchanan made a turnaround jumper from near the free-throw line, then Harris made a strong fadeaway jumper from just outside the paint to push the lead back to 40-31 with 11:56 left. Ta.
