CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – As Virginia looked to create a little separation from Miami near the end of the first half Friday night, coach Ryan Odom exhorted his team, almost too quietly to be heard, “Dig in. Dig in.”

The Cavaliers must have heard him.

UVA finished the first half in dominant fashion on its way to a 84-62 win over the Hurricanes, earning a spot in the ACC championship game for the first time since 2023.

“Once we get rolling, we’re like a freight train,” guard Malik Thomas said. “It’s hard for us to stop.”

Center Ugo Onyenso posted another monster evening, scoring 17 points, grabbing five rebounds and blocking four shots. 

“The more stops we got, the more comfortable we got offensively,” Onyenso said. “And when we’re rolling offensively, defense comes easy for us.” 

Thijs DeRidder added 16 points and six rebounds, Sam Lewis scored 16 and Thomas had 15 for UVA, which advanced to Saturday night’s championship game against top-seed Duke. 

The second-seeded Cavaliers haven’t won an ACC title since 2018.

First year UVA coach Ryan Odom has now taken a team to the championship game of a conference tournament for a fourth straight year, leading Utah State to Mountain West title in 2023, and taking VCU to back-to-back A-10 finals the past two years, winning last year.

Chance Mallory finished with 12 points, six assists and five rebounds.

UVA fought off the Hurricanes 86-83 in Charlottesville on Feb. 21 in the team’s only regular-season meeting. That game saw Miami start hot offensively before cooling off after the break.

The Hurricanes led 44-39 at halftime that day.

Friday night’s rematch unfolded dramatically differently.  

“They really exceeded our physicality and just really put their imprint on the game,” Miami coach Jai Lucas said. “When you’re playing games like this against really good teams, I thought we missed our moment to kind of pull away. I thought they had a rough start, but we didn’t capitalize on it to give ourselves some momentum going down, and then they just continued to play.”

After missing its first seven 3-point attempts, Virginia knocked down three in the final three minutes of the half.

With under 1:30 to play, Thomas took a pass outside the arc, pump-faked to get a Miami defender in the air, then side-stepped him for an open 3. Before the ball left his hands, someone on the Cavaliers’ bench yelled, “Dagger, dagger.”

Thomas’s 3-ball sank to put UVA ahead 33-21 with 1:23 until halftime.

“I thought our guys did a really nice job midway through the first half of really just turning up the defense,” Odom said. “The end of the half obviously was key to the game. Chance makes a huge play in the three. But even going back before that, the stops and scores that we had at the end of the half set us up in a good position.”

In all, Virginia outscored Miami 23-6 over the final 5:40 of the first half, taking a 38-23 lead to the locker room after Mallory drained a buzzer-beating fast-break 3.

And the Cavaliers stayed dug in during the second half, going 8 for 13 from 3-point range after the break.

“In March, you want to be playing your best basketball,” Dallin Hall said. “For us to consistently put 40 minutes together of that intensity, that togetherness, it’s a great confidence builder.”

Virginia will face a Duke team that fought past Florida State in the quarterfinals on Thursday before rolling past Clemson in Friday’s second semifinal, 73-61.

Duke ended the first half on a 26-6 run, setting up the rematch with the Cavaliers.

The Blue Devils dispatched of UVA 77-51 on Feb. 28, handing the Cavaliers’ their most lopsided defeat of the season. That game saw Duke knock down 12 3-pointers, including a 5 for 9 performance beyond the arc for Isaiah Evans.

Blue Devils star Cameron Boozer, the ACC Player of the Year, had 18 points, nine rebound and four assists in that game, going 11 for 12 at the free throw line.

This time around, Jon Scheyer’s club won’t have point guard Caleb Foster or center Patrick Ngongba, both of whom are injured. 

Not that that slowed down Duke any in its first two games of the ACC tournament.