LOUISVILLE, KY – Virginia survived a defensive battle against the 12th seeded Oregon Ducks on Thursday evening to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2016 with a 53-49 victory.
Things started slowly for both teams on the offensive side of the ball. After Oregon got on the board first with a triple from Louis King, the Ducks wouldn’t score again until there was 13:36 left in the half.
For Virginia, it was Kyle Guy getting things started with a basket in the paint. This was the start of a 7-0 run, as they took a 7-3 lead with 16:48 left to play in the half. The Cavaliers would then not score again until the clock was down to 10:56 left in the
The Ducks then went on a 9-0 run to take the 16-10 advantage with 6:27 left in the half. The run was ended by a triple from Kihei Clark. Kenny Wooten got in on the action for Oregon with a dunk, before another scoring drought started with 5:48 left.
Virginia then went on a 10-0 run to take a 23-18 lead with 2:37 left on the first half clock. After a basket from Paul White for Oregon, the Cavaliers closed out the half on a 7-2 run to take a 30-22 lead into the locker room.
In the 2nd half, the action did not pick up the pace. In fact, you could even say that it slowed down. The Ducks scored first with a triple from White with 18:48 left in the game, and then followed that with a jumper from Francis Okoro, trimming the deficit to 3.
The first basket of the 2nd half for the Cavaliers came 2 minutes and 33 seconds in the half, as Guy drained a triple to make it 33-27. After following that up with a layup from Hunter, the Cavaliers wouldn’t score again until there was 12:23 left in the game and the Ducks had trimmed the deficit to just 1.
A jumper from Clark with 11:52 left to play, push the Cavs in front by 6. Then Oregon went on a 8-0 run over the next 3:49, would put the Ducks in front 42-40.
Jerome put an end to the run for the Cavs on a basket to tie things up with 7:43 left to play. Two minutes later, King drained a triple for the Ducks to take the lead, but was immediately followed suit by a triple the other way from Clark for UVA to tie things back up.
With 3:34 left to play, Jerome drained another triple for Virginia gave them a 48-45 lead. Then the defense and poor shooting picked up. The next basket wouldn’t come until there was 27 second left as Hunter put in a layup to give UVA a 5 point lead.
The Ducks were able to get the the line quickly and Payton drained his free throws to cut it to a 3 point deficit with only 17 seconds left to play. Then the foul party started and Hunter sank two for UVA. King missed a triple at the other end for the Ducks, they got the offensive board but weren’t able to get a shot up until there was 1.1 seconds left, and it was all but wrapped up with Oregon sinking two free throws, but still trailing by 3.
UVA was fouled immediately, went to the line, sank one free throw and that was all she wrote.
