Virginia fans showed out in force. Through 40 minutes of play against one of the three best teams in college basketball, the student section stayed loud and on its feet, as the Cavaliers (13-13, 6-9 ACC) put in a ferocious, but ultimately fruitless, effort against the dreadnought that is No. 3 Duke.
With an 80-62 win, the Blue Devils (23-3, 15-1 ACC) proved exactly why they sit comfortably atop the ACC standings. With its shortest starter being 6-foot-6, Duke outrebounded Virginia 41-21, scoring 16 points off second-chance opportunities.
Virginia players put their bodies on the line on both ends of the court, with the backcourt trio of juniors Andrew Rohde and Isaac McKneely and sophomore Dai Dai Ames combining for 44 points. Coming off an impressive performance against Virginia Tech, redshirt freshman forward Anthony Robinson stole the show with a highlight reel block on freshman forward Cooper Flagg.
The most dominant performance of the game, to no real surprise, came from Flagg. Having reclassified to attend college early, the high school phenom from Maine is expected to be picked first overall in the 2025 NBA Draft, and is among the favorites to win the Naismith Award this year.
“The goal was to make it hard for him,” Interim Coach Ron Sanchez said. “He's a good player. He's going to score. I'm not sure that there's a player in college basketball that can tell him that he's not getting to the basket.”
Flagg had 17 points on the game, accompanied by 14 rebounds and some incredible defensive play. His fellow freshmen Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans led Duke in scoring, making a combined eight three-pointers and tying Flagg with 17 points.
It was never a game the Cavaliers were expected to win — some held hope, but the Blue Devils entered as 16-point favorites and are among the favorites to win the national championship in March.
Virginia fought to stay in the game — heroic defensive efforts and continued strong individual performances, as well as an offensive system that has recently shed its training wheels, showed that the Cavaliers came to win against all odds.
That could be seen from the first tip. The game started as a shootout — a powerhouse in Duke and an underdog in Virginia both playing high-paced basketball, keeping the score within a possession for the first five minutes and more.
The Blue Devils, however, slowly began to pull away. Their size on the glass, as well as their overall athleticism, was a nightmare for a much smaller Cavaliers side. Virginia stayed in the game, forcing turnovers, challenging some of the best college players in the world on defense and scoring big shots to prove that what they have strung together over the past few games has been anything but a fluke.
However, Duke scored 14 second-chance points in the first half off eight offensive rebounds, with Flagg out-rebounding Virginia 11-8, proving that — despite all the progress Sanchez’s side has shown on both sides of the ball — you simply cannot teach size.
The Cavaliers trailed 43-29 at half, shooting a strong 50 percent from three while led in scoring by the starting backcourt of Rohde, McKneely and Ames. Rohde’s 11 points led the game, with the Blue Devil freshmen of Flagg and Knueppel having 10 apiece.
In the second half, Duke’s defense began to come alive. Paired with a continuation of its dominant rebounding and strong shooting, the lead slowly began to grow. At no point did the game really look like a blowout — the student section stayed loud and on its feet and Virginia continued to play at a level that would have been unthinkable just a month ago.
Rebounding continued to be the difference-maker. After several poor rebounding performances to start the year, Virginia has shown improvement on the boards in the past few weeks, but the sheer size of the Blue Devils — from their guards to their bigs — made scoring in the paint and cleaning the glass difficult for the Cavaliers.
“We knew we had some disadvantages on the glass, but we thought we would do a much better job,” Sanchez said. “That was unacceptable. Our interior players have to do a much better job rebounding.”
Despite the loss, the past four games have shown that Sanchez’s Virginia has turned a corner. Offensive production has risen, and a handful of players have taken leaps on both sides of the ball. With junior forward Elijah Saunders back but still very clearly not at 100 percent, getting him back in the lineup as a regular contributor will be valuable in helping Virginia take another step forward.
On the bright side for Virginia, Duke was probably the hardest remaining matchup on the calendar. The Cavaliers will travel Saturday to face North Carolina, before another away matchup against Wake Forest Feb. 26.
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