Three takeaways from Virginia basketball’s ACC Tournament title game loss to Duke

The Virginia Cavaliers lost an absolute heartbreaker on Saturday night, falling to the Duke Blue Devils, 74-70, in the ACC Tournament championship game.

After a no-show performance in Durham on February 28th, the ’Hoos looked like an entirely different squad in round two against the Blue Devils, using the momentum of Friday night’s 22-point semifinal win over Miami to take the nation’s top-ranked team to the wire.

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It takes a complete performance, however, to top a team like Duke — which has a strong case to be the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament — and a string of costly mistakes down the stretch doomed Virginia in the final game of an exciting ACC Tournament inside the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

This one will take a minute to forget for Wahoo fans, but for now, here are three takeaways from a nail-biting evening:

The little things made all the difference down the stretch

With 3:10 to play in the second half, Thijs De Ridder knocked down a free throw to knot the score at 66. The ’Hoos had put themselves in position to take down the regular-season ACC champs, but due to a few costly mistakes, that would be the closest Virginia came to a win.

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On the ensuing Blue Devils possession, Isaiah Evans missed a deep three, but UVA failed to get a body on Cayden Boozer (who finished with 16 points and five rebounds), allowing an easy offensive rebound and putback layup.

With a chance to re-tie the score or take the lead on its next possession, Virginia was unable to get any penetration, and Dallin Hall seemed to lose track of time as the shot clock ticked down. Hall lobbed a grenade pass to Sam Lewis, whose desperation three was tipped, resulting in a shot clock violation.

On the other side of the floor, Virginia’s mistakes continued to compound. De Ridder committed an unnecessary off-ball foul on Evans, who canned a pair of free throws to put Duke up by four with 1:59 to play.

Following a putback layup by Ugonna Onyenso that…

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Publish date : 2026-03-15 05:15:00

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