Onyenso stacks up eight blocks as UVa beats State 81-74

Virginia completed a three-game sweep of NC State on Thursday, advancing in the quarterfinal round of the ACC Tournament in Charlotte. The Hoos trailed for most of the first half but led by as many as 12 in the second en route to a 81-74 victory at the Spectrum Center.

The Cavaliers (28-4) were led by another block party from Ugo Onyenso, who finished with a whopping eight rejections in the win, including a critical one down the stretch. Malik Thomas led the Hoos in Wahoos with 16 points, while Thijs De Ridder added 15 and Jacari White had 13 off the bench.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair that featured three ties and three lead changes. As is often the case in tournament environments where one team played the day before and another had a bye, UVa started off the game a bit sluggish, but started to hit a rhythm after the first media timeout. A pair of 3s by De Ridder and White helped the UVa tie the game at 11-11 before the Hoos eventually battled back to take the lead briefly 25-24 on a Sam Lewis 3/ Another 3 from Lewis in transition gave the Hoos a 28-25 lead, forcing the first timeout of the game from Will Wade.

“We didn’t come out with full force on the attack offensively especially. It took us a while to get our footing but that’s the story of our team,” UVa guard Dallin Hall said postgame. “We weather storms, we stay together and just find ways to compete each possessions and win.”

The timeout was a good one, as NC State went on a 7-0 spurt as halftime approached, buoyed by two buckets from guard Matthew Able. But the Cavaliers would answer back, and another De Ridder 3 with 27 seconds remaining gave the Hoos a 33-32 halftime edge. UVa led for just 3:35 of the first 20 minutes.

The second half was more back-and-forth blows between the two teams. Thomas hit an early 3 and slammed home a dunk on a breakaway, but State (20-13) would keep it within a possession with answers of its own.

UVa went on a 9-0 run that featured back-to-back lay ins from Johann Grunloh and then five quick points from Hall that forced another Wade timeout, with State down double digits for the first time in the game at 55-45 with 11:47 remaining.

The Wahoos maintained a multi-possession lead into the final few minutes of the game, but knew that the Wolfpack would push hard late to try and rally back.
 
 “When we’re up five or six, we know that we have to be strong with the ball because those teams are desperate when they’re down much,” Thomas said of UVa’s history of pulling out close games this season.

The Pack did indeed rally, and the Cavaliers had a few big answers, like a corner 3 from White after a big 3 late in the shot clock from deep by State’s Paul McNeil. Thomas scored in the lane and at the line, but the Pack kept coming. A Quadir Copeland and-1 conversion cut it to a five-point game with just under 90 seconds to play. McNeil forced a foul on a 3 and made two at the line, and with 27.3 seconds left hit a tough second-chance 3 to cut the lead back to four and keep the Pack in it.

Devin Tillis fumbled the ball out of bounds and turned it over, but Onyenso subbed back in and made an immediate impact, blocking a Ben-Allen Lubin floater and forcing a stop. Onyenso had a number of impactful plays in the game, but none were bigger than that late block, his eighth of the game.

“They take pride in challenging people at the rim,” Onyenso said in the locker room. “But that’s one thing about our team. We have two great shot blockers. If one isn’t doing it, the other one is doing it.”

UVa was able to see out the game from there. Thomas hauled in a rebound and hit a pair of free throws to finish the scoring at 81-74. Despite the fact that the game got tight at the end and was relatively close throughout, it was an impressive and efficient offensive performance for the Hoos: UVa scored 1.2 points per possession and made 48 percent of its 3s, going 12-of-25 from deep. The Cavaliers also scored 26 bench points to just 15 for State.

Virginia is now back in the semifinals for the first time since the 2024 tournament; this is the team’s ninth time making the tournament’s final four since 2014, after having a nearly two-decade long drought that dated back to 1995. UVa also improved to 2-0 in the Spectrum Center, having beaten Dayton in the arena back in December.

The victory over the Wolfpack marked the first time UVa beat a team three times in a season since the three-game sweep of Louisville in 2022.

Virginia will face the winner of today’s second quarterfinal game between 3-seed Miami and 6-seed Louisville, on Friday night at 7 p.m.