Hoos Clear First Hurdle in NCAA Tournament

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

PHILADELPHIA — As the second half progressed Friday afternoon (March 20), the volume kept rising inside Xfinity Mobile Arena. Virginia couldn’t shake Wright State, and many members of the crowd loved it. They wanted to witness a first-round upset in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and so they cheered everything that went the Raiders’ way.

“Everybody loves a Cinderella story, underdog story,” UVA forward Devin Tillis said.

The Cavaliers made sure there was no happy ending for Horizon League champion Wright State. Led by senior swingman Jacari White, who finished with a season-high 26 points, Virginia pulled away in the final five minutes and secured an 82-73 victory.

“Can't say enough good things about Wright State,” UVA head coach Ryan Odom said. “They played lights out. They gave us everything that we could handle throughout the game.”

UVA (30-5), the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region, advances to face No. 6 seed Tennessee (23-11) in the second round Sunday.

HOOS WIN IN MARCH‼️

On to the Round of 32 👉#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/0askGOW56r

— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) March 20, 2026

For the Wahoos (30-5), the win was their first in the NCAA tournament since April 8, 2019, when they defeated Texas Tech in the national championship game. It did not come easily.

No. 14 seed Wright State (23-12) led by five at halftime, and the Hoos didn’t go ahead to stay until the 4:07 mark of the second half, when the 6-foot-3 White, who was runner-up in voting for ACC Sixth Man of the Year, scored on a drive to make it 71-70. That was part of an 11-0 run capped by White’s final 3-pointer.

“Just really proud of the way that our guys fought throughout the game,” said Odom. “Certainly, the second half was key for us: locking in on defense and really contesting and making things as hard as we could possibly make them.”

When the Cavaliers went ahead 67-61 on two free throws by forward Thijs De Ridder with 8:18 to play, it seemed they might be headed to a comfortable win. But the Raiders answered with nine straight points, “and we were reeling a little bit,” Odom said.

The Hoos regrouped, though, and their late-game execution proved too much for Wright State.

“I thought our guys did a nice job in that moment of rallying and finding a way to focus on what the task at hand was,” said Odom, who's in his first season at Virginia.

In a game in which the Cavaliers shot 50% from 3-point range and 51.9% overall, no one shined brighter for them than White, a graduate student making his first appearance in the NCAA tournament.

“Jacari basically saved the game for us,” De Ridder said.

"I just didn't wanna go out like that... I feel like I willed us to our victory." 😤@UVAMensHoops' Jacari White had a March Moment with 26 PTS off the bench 🔥 pic.twitter.com/2AnAsGeXGE

— TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) March 20, 2026

White, a transfer from North Dakota State, hit 10 of 12 shots, including 6 of 8 from beyond the arc. His six treys match the program record for the most in an NCAA tournament game. (London Perrantes made six 3-pointers against Syracuse in 2016).

“It feels good knowing that I can have a performance like that and help us win a game,” White said. “It's a lot of our first time being here, and I know, for it being my last year, I didn't want for it to end so early. I love this group of guys that I'm with right now.”

White’s previous season high was 25 points. That came on Dec. 5 in Charlotte, N.C., where White hit all seven of his 3-point attempts in a win over Dayton.

“I feel like I had the same mindset in the Dayton game as I did today,” White said. “I just really didn't want to lose today.”

His marksmanship no longer surprises his teammates. “There have been a lot of games like that where Jacari's just making big-time shots,” freshman center Johann Grünloh said. “He’s a big-time shooter, and that's what we need from him.”

Unlike White, Wright State forward Michael Imariagbe is not considered a big-time outside shooter, but he stunned UVA with his long-range accuracy Friday.

Coming into the NCAA tournament, he’d attempted only six 3-pointers all season, with one make. But Imariagbe went 5 for 9 from beyond the arc against Virginia.

“Props to him,” Tillis said. “He made a lot of big plays tonight, a lot of 3s.”

With 5:32 to play, after Lewis was assessed a technical foul, Solomon Callaghan made two free throws to push the Raiders’ lead to 70-67. But Lewis had been fouled before the technical was called, and he went to the line for a one-and-one after Callaghan’s free throws.

With Wright State supporters in full voice—“I heard it,” Lewis said, smiling—he calmly sank both ends of the one-and-one. The Raiders scored only three points the rest of the way.

“The key for us is not complicated,” Odom said. “We had to get stops. We had to keep the pressure on defensively. We couldn't watch the guys shoot 3s. A couple of times, we watched guys shoot and they made us pay. That's not something we have done all season. I think our guys did a nice job of showing the proper poise that was needed to be able to come out victorious.”

Among the Cavaliers making their NCAA tournament debuts was the 7-foot Grünloh, who finished with eight points, a team-high seven rebounds and a game-high three blocked shots. He scored four of his points in the final 3:15 to help the Hoos hold off the Raiders.

“A lot of credit to the other team,” Grünloh said. “They had a hell of a game. But at the end I think our guys did a great job of finishing the job.”

With no pressure on them against the favored Cavaliers, the Raiders played freely for most of the game. Odom, who has also guided UMBC, Utah State and VCU to the NCAA tournaments, knows well the mentality that mid-major teams take into in the postseason, and he shared his experiences with UVA’s players.

“I think a lot of us already kind of knew what it was, too, coming from mid-major schools,” said Tillis, a transfer from UC Irvine. “We've played against a lot of top dogs and we know that you have nothing to lose when you're in that position. But Coach definitely hit on that. He said they're probably going to change how they play. They're not going to be in the paint all day, and that's what they did. I think we weren't as ready as we thought we were for the type of intensity we were going to get from a really good Wright State team. But I do think we kind of figured it out a little bit in the second half.”

The key for the Cavaliers, De Ridder said, was matching the Raiders’ intensity and then surpassing it.

“So we had to just play as hard as we could,” De Ridder said, “and the defensive level had to increase. And that's what I think we did in the second half, and we were able to get a win.”

Freshman point guard Chance Mallory said the game was “definitely a wake-up call” for the Hoos.

“Everybody's coming to play their best, so we just have to be ready for that and not take anybody for granted and just not take this opportunity for granted," Mallory said. "This could be our last time we play with each other and be somebody's last game. So we’re just playing for them and playing for the city of Charlottesville and that community and doing our best.”

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