By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — The UVA men’s basketball team heads into February with a 7-2 record in ACC play. The No. 17 Cavaliers have played six of those games on the road, and they’ve won five of them.
Virginia’s lone conference setback away from John Paul Jones Arena was a triple-overtime loss to Virginia Tech on New Year’s Eve at Cassell Coliseum.
“It’s hard to complain, winning that many games on the road,” said head coach Ryan Odom, whose team is tied for third in the ACC. “It's not easy to win on the road. It doesn't matter what league you're in. It's difficult.”
The Wahoos, who rallied to defeat Notre Dame in double overtime Tuesday night at Purcell Pavilion, turned in another gritty performance Saturday (Jan. 31) at Conte Forum, where they overcame a slow start to beat Boston College 73-66.
“At the end of the day, a win is a win,” Virginia forward Thijs De Ridder said, “and that’s the key.”
UVA, 18-3 overall, trailed at the half Saturday afternoon and didn’t take its first lead until early in the second half. The Hoos stretched their advantage to seven, only to see BC respond with nine straight points.
If the Eagles expected Virginia to unravel late, they were disappointed. The Cavaliers went ahead to stay with 9:49 to play on swingman Jacari White’s 3-pointer, and they pulled away in the final five minutes.
“Two great road wins,” graduate student Malik Thomas said, summarizing Virginia’s week. “We came down to Notre Dame and we got popped in the mouth, and we had a good response. Today, we were trying to pop [the Eagles], and they weren't [going away]. They're a good team. So it was just a matter of us sticking together, sticking with our process, sticking with what got us here, and we were able to pull out a good win.”
Odom said: “To come away this week with two wins on the road is really, really difficult, and I'm proud of the execution down the stretch.”
Wahoo Nation 🧡#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/ay7Uw3p0v3
— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) January 31, 2026
As is usually the case when Hoos come to Boston, they had considerable support at Conte Forum, with pockets of orange visible in most areas of the arena. Chants of “U-V-A! U-V-A!” rang out as the visitors took control late in the game.
“It was pretty cool, man,” De Ridder. said “When you play away and there are so many UVA fans there, it's really awesome.”
The 6-foot-9 De Ridder, who’s from Belgium, turned 23 on Saturday. His parents are scheduled to arrive in Charlottesville on Sunday after flying in from Europe, and they’ll have much to celebrate with their talented son.
Against Notre Dame, De Ridder scored a season-high 32 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Against Boston College (9-12, 2-6), he made 7 of 10 shots from the floor and scored a team-high 17 points. He also contributed five rebounds, an assist and a steal.
On an afternoon when the Hoos, who came in shooting 36.6% from beyond the 3-point arc, made only 4 of 23 long-range attempts, De Ridder bullied the Eagles inside. Thomas also was effective around the basket, hitting 5 of 7 shots from inside the arc.
“We tried it inside today,” De Ridder said, “and it worked.”
In the first half, Thomas said, “I shot a couple tough 3s out of rhythm. So Coach emphasized that I have time to get to the basket. I know that no one can stay in front of me when I'm going downhill, so I just tried to do that. Same thing with Thijs. Every time we get downhill, we put pressure on the refs to call that foul or to get that bucket.”
The Eagles defend the 3-point arc well, Odom said, “and so we wanted to make sure that our guys got to the basket. You can create contact sometimes [if] you can get all the way there. And certainly they have a really good shot-blocker back there”—6-foot-9 Jayden Hastings—"but there were times where we were able to get all the way in.”
BC’s struggles at the line were a major storyline Saturday. The Eagles made their final four free throws but still missed 11 of 26 overall. Virginia, meanwhile, was 13 of 18 from the line.
The victory was the Cavaliers’ eighth in their past nine games with the Eagles. It came in front of a lively crowd of 6,248 that included former Virginia head football coach Al Groh, who lives in New England, and former UVA basketball standouts Sam Hauser and Donald Hand. Joining Hauser at the game were two of his teammates on the Boston Celtics: Xavier Tillman and Anfernee Simons.
Hand’s son, Donald Jr., plays for the Eagles and finished with a game-high 20 points. Also scoring in double figures for BC were Fred Payne (17 points), Boden Kapke (14) and Hastings (12).
“Just really impressed watching them on film, the togetherness that they play with, the energy that they have on both sides of the ball,” Odom said of the Eagles. Their defense is very similar numbers-wise to ours, and they're tough to score on. They really are. And they have guards that can get to the basket, bigs that have some skill inside and outside. And they gave us everything certainly that we can handle today.”
For the Cavaliers, Thomas finished with 14 points, and reserves Chance Mallory, Ugonna Onyenso and White combined to score 26 points.
“We have good players that start, we have good players that come off the bench,” Odom said.
Thomas scored only two points at Notre Dame, a season low, but “that’s why we have a team,” he said Saturday, “to pick one another up.”
No. 1 did his part against BC. “I'm best when I'm aggressive, when I'm attacking, when I'm not playing on my tippy toes,” Thomas said. “So I just had a little reset ... Today it was good to see that ball go in the basket.”