By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — More than a decade has passed since Maryland joined the Big Ten, and it’s a new era in college athletics. Even so, on Saturday night it felt like old times at John Paul Jones Arena, where former ACC rivals Virginia and Maryland met in men’s basketball for the first time in seven years.
In front of a boisterous crowd, the No. 23 Cavaliers went ahead to stay with 13:41 to play in the second half and built a 15-point lead before the Terrapins rallied late. The final was 80-72, and the victory was Virginia’s ninth in its past 10 games with Maryland.
His team was far from flawless against the first Power 4 team to visit JPJ this season, but UVA head coach Ryan Odom saw plenty that he liked in the Cavaliers' first game in 11 days.
After falling behind 19-11 late in the first half, the Wahoos (10-1) ran off 13 straight points. In the second half, after the Terps (6-6) regained the lead with a 16-5 run, the Hoos steadied themselves again and seized control of the game.
Afterward, Odom applauded his players’ resilience.
“It's great to be in those moments,” Odom said, “and certainly we were in those moments— in the first half and the second half—and had to answer. And teams that want to compete at the highest level, you have to answer. You're not gonna play perfectly; this is not a game of perfect. Other teams prepare and do really well, and both teams had a lot of practice time leading into this. And I thought our guys, relatively speaking, did a nice job to dig it out. I'm proud of the way that our defense held up when our offense was really struggling mightily in that first half.”
Guard Dallin Hall, who didn’t miss a shot from the floor, led the Cavaliers with a season-high 20 points and also contributed six assists and three steals. Off the bench, forward Devin Tillis went 4 for 4 from the floor, and guard Jacari White (15 points) once again electrified the fans at JPJ, hitting three 3-pointers and throwing down an emphatic dunk on which he was fouled.
DUNK OF THE YEAR 😳
— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) December 21, 2025
📺 @espn
🔹⚔️🔸#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/8OGUmhaZiO
White’s slam fired up his teammates, too.
“You saw how we jumped on him after that dunk,” Tillis said. “It has a huge effect when you have players that can make plays like that. I've never been on a team where a player can go up and dunk like that. That's probably why my reaction was so crazy. But when you have players that can make plays like that, it's huge, because it gets the crowd into it, and then it helps us get our momentum going.”
The fans, Odom said, “were awesome. They gave us a big lift, and we finally gave them something to cheer about at that point.”
This was the first of four games between UVA and Maryland scheduled for the next several years. They’ll meet in Charlottesville again in 2027-28 and in College Park, Md., in 2026-27 and 2028-29.
“It’s great to get it going again,” Odom, who’s in his first year at Virginia, said of a series that started in 1913.
“I'm excited that I can be a part of it. It's special. I told the players in our preparation for this game that we're all lucky to be a part of this match-up. And there have been some great games [between these programs].”
Like Maryland, Virginia has won an NCAA championship, and “it’s really special to get programs like that together on the court,” Odom said. “So we're thankful that it's happening.”
The Terps, who are in their first season under former Virginia Tech head coach Buzz Williams, played without their top scorer and rebounder, 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior Pharrel Payne, who’s out with an injury.
Even without Payne, Maryland outrebounded UVA 41-34. But the Cavaliers dominated in other areas. They forced the Terps into 19 turnovers—freshman guard Chance Mallory led Virginia with five steals—and turned them into 22 points. Moreover, the Hoos outscored Maryland 44-12 in the paint.
After a first half in which neither team shot well, both heated up after intermission. From beyond the arc, UVA was 6 for 11 and Maryland was 10 for 20 in the second half.
The Terps, who trailed 24-19 at the break, hit their first five shots in second half, four of them 3-pointers, to tie the game at 33-33, and then went up 35-33. Virginia didn’t panic, however, and rallied behind Hall, White and Mallory.
“I told the guys, ‘The lid's going to come off the basket if you lean into one another. If you don't lean into one another, and you don't pass the ball, and you don't move your body, and you don't have a positive attitude, and some of those, it's hard,” Odom said.
“When you're a basketball player and you miss a shot that you think you should make, that can drag you down and hurt your confidence. And so ultimately, how do you get your confidence back? You get it through your teammates, and you get it through your coaches, and certainly at that moment, our job was to keep our guys cool but competitive, and we needed to compete harder.”
Hall, a graduate transfer from BYU, came in averaging a modest 5.8 points per game. Surrounded by gifted offensive players, he’s often content to set them up, but No. 30 showed against Maryland that he’s capable of big games, too.
“He’s everything for us,” Tillis said. “We call him Captain America. So he's ultimately our leader. And when he's scoring 19, 20 points, whatever he had, it just fuels the fire even more to have him out there.”
Hall praised the Cavaliers’ coaches. "They have a lot of confidence in me. They pour confidence into me and my teammates as well. Exhibit A over here, Devin Tillis, he's always on me about being assertive out there, looking to make plays for us. And so I'm just really grateful for the teammates and the staff and how they pour confidence into me.”
One of four graduate transfers on UVA’s roster, Hall has “been in some big moments over the course of his career,” Odom said. “He's determined to be a leader for this team. I texted him last night. His voice, I'm hearing it more and more and more with the guys in a more assertive way, which is not necessarily natural for him, and we really need that. And I think our guys respond to him, they respect him so much. And it's great to see him play the way that he did. We needed him to play that way tonight.”