By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In front of a sellout crowd that included members of one of the finest teams in program history, the 2025-26 Virginia Cavaliers showed once again that they’re a formidable group, too.
Three days after routing California by 24 points at John Paul Jones Arena, No. 23 UVA handled the ACC’s other West Coast team, Stanford, in similarly convincing fashion. The Wahoos, who led by seven at intermission Saturday, built a 23-point lead midway through the second half and cruised to a 70-55 victory at JPJ.
“Good team,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said of the Hoos (14-2 overall, 3-1 ACC). “You're going to have to play really well to beat them, especially beat them here. I felt good about the way we defended and rebounded, but you’ve got to put the ball in the basket.”
Against a UVA defense that forced six shot-clock violations, the Cardinal (13-4, 2-2) shot 32.1 percent from the floor and 19.2 percent from 3-point range. Freshman guard Ebuka Okorie, who had scored at least 30 points in three of Stanford’s previous five games, including a stunning win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, finished with 14 on Saturday. He missed 15 of 20 shots from the floor, including all six of his attempts from beyond the arc.
“He's tough to guard,” UVA head coach Ryan Odom said. “We talked all week about guarding him with five guys and not one, trying to keep him off balance in pick-and-roll coverages. Certainly, he demands a double team at times.”
With a minute left in the first half, it was a two-point game. But freshman guard Chance Mallory hit a 3-pointer and then made two free throws, giving the Cavaliers a momentum boost heading to the locker room.
In the second half, Stanford missed 16 of its first 17 shots from the floor.
“I thought their defense took us out of some stuff,” Smith said. “We settled for some bad shots and got down and couldn't quite recover, and then that stretch there where (Ugonna) Onyenso blocked like five shots really kind of dampened our spirits.”
Onyenso, a 7-footer who rejected four shots against Cal, blocked five against Stanford. The Cavaliers’ on-ball defense was stingy, too.
“Out of halftime our guys did a nice job defensively on a night where our offense wasn't great down the stretch,” Odom said. “We had one little spurt there that helped us separate, but for the most part, our guys did a really nice job on the defensive end. So proud of that and seeing some improvements there.”
Mallory said that on defense the Cavaliers are “just playing together as a team. Wearing them down is what we try to do. So I feel like we put that pressure on them in the first half, and then as soon as the second half goes, they just keep facing our press and our ball pressure, and us keeping our chest in front. I feel like that wears the team down, and I feel like it showed these past couple of games.”
Automatic efficiency 🎯@UVAMensHoops forward Thijs De Ridder led the way in a 70–55 win over Stanford, pouring in 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting and a perfect 5-of-5 at the line. Smooth, steady, and in control.@VirginiaSports | #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/ZVcqP8eH3C
— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) January 10, 2026
Thijs De Ridder, a 6-foot-9 forward, scored a game-high 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting, and the 5-foot-10 Mallory finished with 13 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and no turnovers.
“I thought Mallory played really well,” Smith said, “and I think Ebuka just ran out of gas.”
Malik Thomas added 11 points, a game-high seven rebounds and three assists for the Cavaliers.
Honored during the second media timeout of the first half was Virginia’s 1994-95 team, which advanced to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. Three of the players on that team—Jason Williford, Cory Alexander and Jamal Robinson—had work conflicts this weekend. Their teammates and coaches, however, returned to Grounds and gathered for a reception Friday night at the Rotunda.
“It was just special to be able to be in that room with people that care about this place and certainly care about this program,” Odom said.
The head coach of that UVA team was Jeff Jones, for whom Odom later worked at American University. “One of my best friends in the world, a mentor for me,” Odom said.
They’ve know each other since the 1980s, when Jones was a Cavalier point guard and Odom’s father, Dave, was an assistant on Terry Holland’s staff at Virginia.
“He would chat with me as a youngster,” Ryan Odom said, “and to be friends now at this stage in our lives is really cool, and to see him and his players be honored like that. And this is not the only team that we're going to do it for. There's so many great basketball teams that have played here under different eras, different coaches.”
Odom is in his first year as the Cavaliers’ head coach, and his first ACC game was a triple-overtime loss to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Since then, Virginia has won three straight by an average of 18 points.
The key for the Hoos, Mallory said, has been “moving on from that loss and keeping the momentum going, just focusing on the next one in front of us.”
Stanford, which had won seven straight in the series, struggled to stop the 238-pound De Ridder, as many other teams have. For the season, he’s shooting 55.4 percent from the floor, and the Belgian import was ruthlessly efficient again Saturday.
“He’s just strong and skilled, and he plays like the vet,” Smith said. “He's new to the [United] States and new to ACC, but he's not new to basketball. He's good, and he understands how to play with good poise, his strength. He really didn't make any bad decisions out there.”
Asked about De Ridder, Odom said, “I thought he was awesome. He took what the defense gave to him. When he starts driving to the basket, I'm looking at him like, man, he's athletic, he's strong, he's physical getting in there.
“It's got to be hard for the opponent to guard that. I was most proud of his post-ups in the second half. They didn't come double [team], and he did a nice job of just working his way to the basket, got a bucket, got fouled. And that's certainly what we need him to do.”
The crowd of 14,637 was the largest of the season at JPJ, and the fans’ support fueled the Hoos.
“We definitely felt the crowd,” Mallory said.