White has a huge day in UVa's 86-73 victory over Dayton
With his “army” (and the slew of fans in orange and blue) making the Spectrum Center feel like John Paul Jones arena, Jacari White scored a season-high 25 points as UVa used a key stretch in the second half and then held on for an 86-73 win.
White was unconscious, not only hitting all nine field goals he attempted but he went 7-for-7 from long range. He now owns the school record most consecutive 3s made (12) and consecutive field goals made.
Rookie guard Chance Mallory added 12 points in the win for UVa (8-1), which finished shooting 60 percent from the floor and 60 percent from deep. But the Hoos turned it over a season-high 21 times, allowing Dayton (7-3) to score 22 points.
Had the Hoos not shot it so well, particularly White, it might have ended very differently.
Despite Virginia shooting 55 percent from the floor, the first half was especially sloppy. The teams combined to turn it over 17 times. UVa, which had 11 of them, gave up 11 points off of those miscues. It also didn’t help that the Wahoos were just 3-for-8 from long range.
But a 9-for12 second half from deep helped the Cavaliers sow up a win.
UVa used 7-0 run to take a 46-39 lead before Dayton answered. But then back-to-back 3s from Devin Tillis and White were about to buoy Virginia, forcing coach Anthony Grant and the Flyers to call timeout to force the under-16 timeout.
After another White 3-pointer and then a bucket inside, the under-16 finally came with 13:25 left and UVa on an 11-0 run inside a larger 18-3 spurt.
By the under-8, UVa’s lead sat at 69-53 with 7:32 to play. It looked for a while thereafter like the Wahoos would walk away with a W but a 14-0 run over 2:38 made it a seven-point game with 4:10 remaining.
White to the rescue, though. He hit a big 3, Thijs De Ridder got the ensuing rebound, and Johann Grunloh scored inside to make it 79-67 with 1:56 left on the clock.
The Flyers ended up missing seven of their last eight shots down the stretch, as UVa salted away the victory. They were led in scoring by Javon Bennett’s 18 points on 8-for-22 shooting.
