Virginia stops Wright State’s upset bid, earns its first NCAA Tournament win since 2019 national title

Virginia coach Ryan Odom was on the other side of this kind of game in the past.

In fact, he did it quite famously to the Cavaliers in 2018, when Maryland-Baltimore County became the first No. 16 seed to topple a No. 1. That feat took him to Utah State, Virginia Commonwealth, and ultimately to the big stage in Charlottesville last summer.

Now here he was with the third-seeded Cavaliers, in South Philadelphia after finishing second to mighty Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They didn’t make the NCAA Tournament last season, sent sideways by coach Tony Bennett’s sudden retirement. Nor had they gone past the first round since 2019, when they won the national title in one of college hoops’ great redemption stories.

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Well, there might have been an old ghost in one of the equipment bags.

Wright State gave Virginia all it could handle, and the full-house crowd a thrill, before the favorites took control late for an 82-73 win Friday afternoon in the Midwest Region game.

“It’s not meant to be easy,” Odom said. “It’s meant to be hard, and you’re going to have to fight for something that you want, and you have to go for it in these moments. And I think that’s just what our guys did.”

The Raiders led by 43-38 at halftime and 61-58 with 11 minutes, 8 seconds left in the second half before Virginia scored the game’s next nine points. Wright State then charged back take a 70-67 lead with 5:32 left, helped by a technical foul on Virginia guard Sam Lewis.

That proved the turning point. Cavaliers guard Jacari White scored eight of his game-high 26 points from there on, while his team’s defense held the Raiders to just one made basket.

» READ MORE: Philly has hosted plenty of drama in the NCAA Tournament. We rank the top 10 games of all time here.

“The first game is always the hardest,” said Virginia forward Malik Thomas, whose 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting included three three-pointers. “I think that as a team, we were a little bit nervous. … After we got those jitters out and we started to play our basketball and come together, we were able to string some stops together and hit some big shots.”

Michael Imariagbe was one of four Wright State players in double-figures, tallying 19 points and 10 rebounds in his final college game.

“I wish we could have done a few more things to get them over the hump in this game, but I am proud to be their coach,” head coach Clint Sargent said. “I’m proud and thankful to get to do life with them. I told them I’d do anything for them, and [this is] a hard one to swallow.”

It was no surprise that Wright State had all the neutral fans in their corner, including the Miami (Ohio) and Tennessee fans who showed up early at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The Raiders were in their first NCAA Tournament in four years after winning the Horizon League. They had a 15-18 record last season.

» READ MORE: Philly has hosted plenty of drama in the NCAA Tournament. We rank the top 10 games of all time here.

But it was a good kind of surprise to see a big crowd in the early afternoon. Though the four teams’ campuses aren’t unreasonably far from Philadelphia, there was uncertainty about how well the fan bases would turn out. They did in the end, along with plenty of others.

They almost got what they wanted, too, until Virginia toughed it out in the end.

When Brant Byers hit two shots for Miami in the first two minutes against Tennessee, it seemed as though the RedHawks’ magic had traveled to Philadelphia. The big crowd in the arena was clearly on their side, including plenty of red-clad supporters who had come to town from Ohio.

Alas, it didn’t last. The No. 3 seed Volunteers seized control of the game soon after that and never let up, rolling to a 78-56 win.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie poured in 22 of his game-high 29 points for Tennessee in the first half, finishing the day with 11 of 21 shooting, including six three-pointers.

Peter Suder led No. 14 Miami, who went through the regular season undefeated, with 27 points on 7-for-12 shooting and 4-for-7 from long range. Byers, a native of Chambersburg, Pa., who graduated from the Perkiomen School in Montgomery County, made just one more shot after his early pair. He finished with nine points on 3 of 12 shooting, and was 1-for-6 from beyond the arc.

They and their teammates also unfortunately made too many mistakes with the ball along the way, especially in the first half.

Tennessee will face No. 6 Virginia on Sunday. The tip time and TV channel were to be set Friday night.