February 28, 2026; Durham, North Carolina, USA; Virginia Cavaliers forward Tis de Rieder (28) shoots past Duke Blue Devils center Patrick Ngongba II (21) during the first half at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-Imagn Image No. 11 Virginia will try to avoid a lopsided loss to No. 1 Duke and close out the regular season with two more wins in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers remain in sole possession of second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference after Saturday’s 77-51 loss to the Blue Devils. Virginia (25-4, 13-3 ACC) will now look to improve its home record to 14-1 against Wake Forest (15-4, 6-10) starting Tuesday night.
Virginia’s other losses this season were a triple-overtime thriller at Virginia Tech, a seven-point loss to Butler on neutral floors and a five-point deficit at home for first place at the time. 22 North Carolina.
The 26-point outburst at Duke is new territory for the Cavaliers, who have tried to find some silver lining.
“We haven’t really kicked ass,” forward Devin Tillis said. “We’re 25-4, but we need something like that to learn something, especially going into March. Those are the teams we need to beat and compete with, so I think it was a good experience for us no matter how it goes.”
Virginia shot just 20.0% from 3-point range (7 of 35) and 29.1% from the field (16 of 55) and never led at Duke, snapping a nine-game winning streak.
“We’ll learn from it,” point guard Dallin Hall said. “That’s what this team has done all year. They responded after adversity. It’s difficult. There’s a lot of emotion right after a game, so we’ve got to really watch the tape and dial in where we need to improve, but we’ll definitely come out better from it.”
Thijs De Ridder averages 16.0 points and 6.2 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers, who have won 12 of their last 14 meetings against Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are 2-6 on the road and 0-6 against ranked opponents this season.
Wake Forest halted a two-game slide with an 88-83 home win over Syracuse on Saturday. Myles Colvin scored 32 points on 9-of-12 shooting and missed just one of eight attempts from 3-point range.
“Myles Colvin is a testament to resilience and belief in oneself,” said Demon Deacons coach Steve Forbes. “I think he’s been 1-for-16 the last two games he’s come in here, but the quality of his shot today was pretty good. He’s got some tight spin on it. He’s gained confidence. He missed one 3, and that was at the end when he was wide open. It was a really nice comeback for him.
The Demon Deacons trailed the Orange 46-42 at halftime but pulled away after shooting 57.9 percent from the field (33 of 57), including 9 of 16 from behind the arc.
“It felt good to win,” Forbes said. “It felt bad in the first half when we had a hard time stopping, but in the second half it was a lot of work defensively. Once we got the lead, we never looked back.”
Wake Forest concluded its regular season against Cal in Winston-Salem, California, on Saturday. Virginia has a rematch at home against rival Virginia Tech on Saturday.
–Field level media
