CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia steamrolled North Carolina State twice during the regular season.

March is different. 

Second-seeded UVA fought from behind in the first half, then used a big second half run to get past the Wolfpack, 81-74, Thursday in the ACC tournament quarterfinals at the Spectrum Center.

“They had a level of quit, I would say, in the first two games,” UVA freshman point guard Chance Mallory said. “But we didn’t see that in this game. They kept fighting ’til the very end. Obviously in March everybody is going to try to give their best to the very end, because they don’t want to lose. They don’t want their season to end. We definitely felt that a little bit.”

Malik Thomas scored 16 points, Thijs DeRidder had 15 and Jacari White added 13 for Virginia. Sam Lewis added 12. Point guard Dallin Hall keyed a 9-0 run in the second half that gave UVA control of the game. Hall finished with eight points, five assists and five rebounds. He committed just one turnover.

Ugo Onyenso, who leads the ACC in blocked shots, had eight Thursday, matching the second most in tournament history. That included a key one in the final 20 seconds.

“I feel like it’s a regular thing for me,” Onyenso said of his big defensive showing. “The thing that surprised me the most was, they kept coming at me.”

Onyenso said his comments after UVA’s regular-season finale win over Virginia Tech, when he said of opposing players, “I love the fear in their eyes when they see me down there,” might have spurred the Wolfpack into challenging him more.

“I feel like they heard the interview when I said that and they were like, ‘Nah, we’re going to go at him,'” Onyenso said. “That’s what you get when you challenge a shot blocker.”

The Cavaliers will face the winner of Thursday’s second quarterfinal, between Louisville and Miami, at 7 p.m. Friday. They beat both teams during the regular season.

The Cavaliers had also already won two meetings with the Wolfpack, 76-61 in Raleigh on Jan. 3 and 90-61 in Charlottesville on Feb. 24. They never trailed in either contest. 

But Thursday’s matchup was a different story.

Paul McNeil Jr. led the Wolfpack with 26 points, going 6 for 11 from 3. Ven Allen Lubin added 14 and Matt Able scored 12.

North Carolina State coach Will Wade agreed with Mallory’s assessment that the Wolfpack played with more heart Thursday than in either of the previous two games against UVA.

“I thought we played with an edge today. I thought we played with better effort,” Wade said. “We haven’t, quite frankly, played with this level of effort all the time this year, so it’s tough to correct all the details, and it’s tough to correct all the little things when you’re coaching effort and trying to get effort from guys.”

Virginia was out of sorts early. Center Johann Grunloh picked up two fouls in the first 2:44 of play.

DeRidder scored Virginia’s first five points but the Wolfpack jumped out to an 11-5 lead.

UVA tied the game 22-22 on an ally-oop from Hall to Ugo Onyenso with 8:46 left in the half. 

A Lewis 3 with 6:58 left in the half gave UVA its first lead of the afternoon, 25-24.

Virginia led 33-32 at the half, then used a 9-0 run to open up a 55-45 lead. Hall, who doesn’t have a large scoring role, hit a driving layup, then knocked down a long 3-pointer to give the Cavaliers control of the contest.

N.C. State got within five with 1:24 to play, then trimmed UVA’s lead to 78-74 with 26.8 left on a second-chance 3-pointer by McNeil.

An Onyenso block followed by a DeRidder rebound helped seal the win.4

“The biggest difference was, it’s March,” Hall said. “Every team’s desperate right now. We know we’re getting everyone’s best shot and we responded well to that.”