Virginia Outlasts Boston College In Overtime Thriller To Reach ACC SemifinaL

Raza Umerani

Staff Writer

March 14, 2024

Reece Beekman was big in UVa's comback win over Boston College. (Virginia Athletics)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It wasn’t pretty. Not many Virginia basketball games are.

But like so many games in March featuring Tony Bennett’s squad, defense prevailed in the end.

After 35 minutes of back-and-forth basketball which Boston College led for most of, the No. 3 seed Cavaliers (23-9) suffocated the No. 11 seed Eagles (19-15) in the final five minutes of regulation and overtime en route to a gritty 66-60 overtime win in the fourth and final ACC Tournament quarterfinal game late on Thursday night inside Capital One Arena.

“I just thought they hit us in the mouth first, but we stayed the course, got some stops, and then got to it,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said postgame. “But we were just not quite ready to start. We tried to be, but didn't play out that way.”

UVa didn’t play poorly by any means in the first half, but it still trailed by six points at the halftime break. That was largely thanks to BC’s hot hand, shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from beyond the arc.

But the second half was a period where neither team played well, at least offensively. The two squads combined to shoot just 19-of-57 from the floor with Boston College shooting a drab 29 percent, going 2-of-11 from distance. Virginia held BC without a made field goal for the final 5:20 of regulation, and only allowed the Eagles to hit one shot in the extra period.

“They're a very good defensive team,” Eagles guard Claudell Harris Jr. said. “That's what they're known for, for the most part. But shots not falling came back to back to back, so going deep in that second half and into overtime you start feeling a lot of wear and tear. So those missed shots that come up short or long, that's more mental than anything.”

Virginia ramped up the defensive intensity down the stretch, especially down low against Eagles star big man Quentin Post. Although he had 23 points and 13 rebounds on the night, his final bucket came with over five minutes left in regulation as Jordan Minor played exquisite defense to clog up the interior and force misses.

Despite flipping the script in the second half, the Cavaliers still let the Eagles hang around via poor free throw shooting. Several empty trips to the charity stripe culminated in a 8-of-18 performance from the line.

“We're saving them until we need them,” Bennett jokingly remarked. “That's part of the deal.”

They might have needed them in regulation. The missed free throws gave BC a chance to tie or win the game on its final possession. After Harris missed a long three, a long offensive rebound found Jaeden Zackery, who gave it off to Mason Madsden with just two seconds remaining. Standing just inside the arc, he let a long two fly, and as the buzzer sounded, the ball swirled home to tie the game at 57, sending it to overtime.

Despite apparent momentum, the extra five minutes weren’t kind to BC, which made just one shot while Virginia hit two, including two massive threes to push the lead to six. Although the Eagles cut it to as little as three, the combination of elite defense from the Cavaliers and poor shooting from its fatigued players in overtime of their third game in as many days doomed Boston College in the end.

“I think at the end, you could tell that they'd been off for a couple days and they had a fresh set of legs, and our players kept fighting,” Eagles head coach Earl Grant said. “But they made some tough shots. They've got a great program. They've been good for years. We look forward to continuing to build our program so we can have that type of endurance in these games like this.”

The Cavaliers face No. 10 seed NC State — fresh off its upset of No. 2 seed Duke — in the second ACC Tournament Semifinal on Friday night at 9:30 p.m. ET.