Thijs De Ridder scored 16 points and No. 13 Virginia held on for a 75-70 victory over Wake Forest in Atlantic Coast Conference action Tuesday night in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers (26-4, 14-3 ACC) never trailed and clinched the No. 2 seed and a double bye at next week’s ACC tournament in Charlotte, N.C. They are 15-1 at home heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale against visiting Virginia Tech.
Jacari White added 14 points and Johann Grunloh had 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocks for Virginia. Malik Thomas added 11 points and Dallin Hall had 10.
The Demon Deacons (15-15, 6-11) have lost three of their last four games and are 0-7 against ranked opponents. Mekhi Mason scored a season-high 26 points, Juke Harris had 21 and Sebastian Akins added 10.
Virginia took its first double-digit lead at 37-26 on Hall’s 3-pointer early in the second half.
Every time Wake Forest cut it to a two-possession game, the Cavaliers found an answer.
After Mason’s 3-pointer sliced Virginia’s lead to 56-50 with 6:31 left, Hall immediately responded with a triple.
Mason knocked down another trey to pull within 59-53, and Thomas answered with a transition 3-pointer.
The Demon Deacons trailed 68-62 on a layup by Harris with 2:02 left, but Thomas once again countered with a 3-pointer.
A three-point play by Mason moved Wake Forest to within 71-67 with 25 seconds left. Chance Mallory missed the front end of a one-and-one for Virginia with 21 seconds left, but Harris missed a 3-pointer at the other end and Hall sank two free throws for a 73-67 lead.
Akins buried a late triple for Wake Forest to make it 73-70 before Hall canned two free throws with just over 4 seconds left for the final margin.
The victory gives the Cavaliers a 73-72 lead in the all-time series that began in 1910-11.
Virginia led 32-24 at the break despite missing 14 of its 17 3-point attempts. Wake Forest shot just 23.3% (7 of 30) from the field in the first half.
