No. 3 Seed Cavaliers Fall in Overtime to No. 10 Seed NC State in ACC Tournament Semifinals
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The No. 3 seed Virginia Cavaliers fell 73-65 in overtime to the No. 10 seed NC State Wolfpack in the ACC Tournament semifinals on Friday night (March 15) at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The Cavaliers shot 37.9 percent (25 for 66 FG) in the contest.
Isaac McKneely (23 points, 8 for 15 FG, 5 for 9 3FG), Reece Beekman (17 points, 6 for 13 FG, 11 assists) and Ryan Dunn (10 points, 5 for 10 FG, 9 rebounds) represented the Cavaliers’ double-digit scorers.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Cavaliers struck first, with McKneely netting his first 3-pointer of the night not even thirty seconds into the contest. Virginia claimed a three-point advantage (7-4) at the first media timeout, but the Wolfpack hit a triple then made 1 of 2 from the line to snag their first lead of the night (10-9) at the thirteen minute mark. McKneely tied it at 14 with another 3-pointer (10:18), but the Cavaliers would not regain the lead until 11 minutes later when Beekman drew a foul off D.J. Burns, Jr., on a made layup and completed the and-one. As the buzzer sounded to send the game into halftime, NC State tied the score at 29 with a layup. Beekman’s team-high 10 points (3 for 4 FG, 3 for 3 FT) tied Wolfpack junior guard Ben Middlebrooks (4 for 5 FG, 2 for 3 FT) for most points at the half.
Coming out of the break, Virginia grabbed the lead with a Beekman layup and would go on to hold that advantage until the Wolfpack tied it at 35 with a pair of makes from the line. A 5-2 NC State run expanded the Virginia deficit to three before Murray tied it with a make from beyond the arc (40-40). After four minutes of the score being either tied or in favor of the Wolfpack, McKneely logged five quick points to turn the tide in favor of the Wahoos (47-44). Taine Murray drilled a 3-pointer to extend the lead to four (50-46) before McKneely hit his fourth triple of the evening to give the Cavaliers a game-high seven point lead. A Casey Morsell dunk brought NC State within three, but Beekman responded with a massive dunk of his own to restore the advantage to five (57-52). After being fouled in 3-point range, Morsell made all three attempts from the line to bring the score to 58-55 with 43.1 seconds left on the clock. A buzzer-beater Wolfpack 3-pointer took the game into overtime (58-58).
The two sides exchanged the lead four times in the opening three minutes of the overtime period, but a 5-0 NC State scoring run put the Cavaliers in a four-point deficit at the 45.1 second mark that they were ultimately unable to erase.