Onyenso, Mallory and Co. rout Miami, reach ACCT title game
In a rematch of a regular-season classic, No. 10 Virginia had no interest in another heart stopper on Friday night.
The Wahoos led most of the way in an 84-62 rout of Miami in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. The win pushed the Cavaliers (29-4) into Saturday night’s ACC Championship Game, their first title game appearance since 2023 but their fifth in the last 12 years.
The first half started slow for both teams. Neither could separate and at the under-8 media timeout, the teams were tied at 15-15. At that point, UVa was 0-for-7 from deep and had five turnovers, pretty fortunate to be in a tied game instead of trailing. The Hoos would go on a run late in the half though, and created some separation. Thijs De Ridder canned the Cavaliers’ first 3-pointer of the game with 2:45 until the break to give UVa a 28-21 lead. A Dallin Hall putback off of a De Ridder miss forced a Miami timeout, but the Hoos kept pounding.
With just under 30 seconds left, Ugonna Onyenso slammed one home to extend the lead to 13, and on Miami’s final possession of the half, Chance Mallory forced a takeaway and hit a 3 in transition at the horn, giving UVa a 38-23 halftime advantage.
Early in the second half, Miami wasn’t able to cut into the Virginia advantage. A De Ridder slam with 15:55 remaining gave the Cavaliers their biggest lead of the night at 17 points. UVa would get the lead to 18 on a Sam Lewis 3 with just over 13 minutes to play, but the Canes finally started to respond. Back to back 3-pointers and a Shelton Henderson slam cut the deficit to 11 with 10 minutes to play.
Virginia wasn’t have any of it, led by senior guard Malik Thomas. He got an and-1 play at the rim, though he missed the free throw, and then hit a 3 and had a transition dunk on a turnover and long pass from De Ridder to restore UVa’s 18-point advantage.
Whenever Miami would hit a shot to trim the lead, UVa would respond on the other end. Mallory found Lewis for a corner 3 with four minutes to go to push UVa’s lead to 20 and Mallory’s shot from the same spot a minute later was the exclamation point.
The Cavaliers were able to empty the bench and wrapped up a dominant victory in one of their best performances of the season.
Onyenso might be the story of the tournament for UVa. After his 8-block performance in the quarterfinal win over NC State, Onyenso had his best offensive game of the season with 17 points, the team-high to go with four more blocks. If UVa can win the title, Onyenso might win Tournament MVP, which would’ve been an extreme longshot. He now holds the ACC Tournament’s all-time lead for blocks in a tournament.
As usual, it was a balanced score sheet for the Hoos. De Ridder and Lewis both scored 16; Lewis was 4-of-5 from deep. Thomas added 15 and Mallory had 12 points and 6 assists off the bench.
Virginia will play the winner of tonight’s second semifinal between No. 1 ranked and top-seeded Duke and 5-seed Clemson.
