UVA Basketball Stuns No. 5 Duke at the Buzzer: Game-Winning Shot, Full Highlights & Fan Reactions

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — UVA basketball is rolling into the heart of ACC play with fresh momentum, a top-25 ranking and a sold-out John Paul Jones Arena. The No. 23 Virginia Cavaliers (13-2, 2-1 ACC) throttled California 84-60 on Wednesday to move to 9-0 at home and will put that perfect home mark on the line Saturday afternoon against Pac-12 transplant Stanford (13-3, 2-1 ACC) in a nationally televised clash on The CW. First-year head coach Ryan Odom has quickly turned the Cavaliers into one of the ACC’s most entertaining offenses. Virginia ranks second in school history at 86.1 points per game, hoisting a program-record 28.3 three-point attempts per outing and converting 37.2 percent from deep. Seven different players have led the Hoos in scoring, but 6-foot-9 Belgian forward Thijs De Ridder tops the season chart at 16.1 points a night while shooting 54.3 percent. Balance was on full display against Cal. USC transfer Malik Thomas poured in 20 points, and four teammates—Johann Grünloh, De Ridder, Sam Lewis and Ugonna Onyenso—each added 12. Virginia outrebounded the Bears 45-26 and dished 23 assists on 30 made buckets, a trademark of Odom’s “Virginia Standard” built on pace, share-the-ball offense and disruptive defense. Onyenso, a 6-11 Kansas State import, patrols the paint with 2.4 blocks per game, part of a unit that swats 6.5 shots nightly, second in the ACC. Saturday’s matchup is more than a non-conference novelty; it counts in the league standings after the ACC’s offseason expansion. Stanford embarrassed Virginia 88-65 in Palo Alto last January, but this UVA roster is almost unrecognizable: 12 newcomers, including crafty BYU point guard Dallin Hall (4.1 apg) and lights-out shooter Jacari White, who owns a program-record streak of 12 straight made threes. Odom’s squad also owns a 10-game home winning streak and has scored 80-plus in 13 contests—already the program’s most since 2001-02. Key storylines for Saturday: • Three-point firefight: Virginia averages 10.5 made threes; Stanford surrenders just 31 percent from beyond the arc. • Glass warfare: UVA is plus-9.5 in rebound margin and 11-0 when winning the boards. • Revenge factor: Only three Cavaliers experienced last year’s Stanford blowout, but Odom’s 2018 UMBC upset of UVA ensures no one in Charlottesville takes redemption lightly. With Louisville, Duke and North Carolina looming later this month, holding serve at JPJ is critical for the Cavaliers’ ACC title hopes and NCAA seeding ambitions. A win would cement UVA’s best 16-game start since Tony Bennett’s 2019 championship campaign and keep Charlottesville buzzing about the program’s fast-paced renaissance under Odom. Tipoff is set for 2:15 p.m. ET, and the environment promises to be raucous. For fans hunting tickets, the game is officially sold out, but secondary-market seats are moving fast. For everyone else, tune in on The CW or the Virginia Sports Radio Network to see if the Hoos can keep lighting up the scoreboard—and the ACC standings—one long-range bomb at a time.