Reece Beekman drained a 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left to give Virginia a shocking 69-68 victory against No. 7 Duke on Monday night at Durham, N.C.
Jayden Gardner scored 17 points with eight rebounds, Kadin Shedrick dumped in a career-high 16 points off the bench and Armaan Franklin had 11 points for Virginia (15-9, 9-5 Atlantic Coast Conference). It was the Cavaliers’ third straight win and fourth in the past five games.
Mark Williams battled foul trouble and finished with 16 points and Trevor Keels had all 12 of his points in the second half for the Blue Devils (19-4, 9-3), who fell into a first-place tie in the league with idle Notre Dame. The loss snapped Duke’s five-game winning streak.
Paolo Banchero of Duke was held to a season-low nine points on 3-for-9 shooting, although he added a game-high nine rebounds. His desperation 3 at the final buzzer was off the mark.
Duke had troubling rekindling the kind of precision it showed two nights earlier in a 20-point win at rival North Carolina.
The Cavaliers were in need a breakthrough result to bolster their flickering postseason hopes.
Virginia maintained a narrow lead for the first 16 minutes of the second half, even after Duke closed within 51-50 with 11:15 remaining. Jeremy Roach’s drive finally put the Blue Devils on top 64-63 with four minutes to play.
Keels then rebounded his own miss and converted for a 66-63 lead over a minute later. Keels later put the Blue Devils back up two with a pair of free throws with 1:28 left. Virginia missed multiple shots over consecutive possessions sandwiched around a Duke turnover.
The Cavaliers got a final chance when a held-ball situation resulted in the arrow pointing in their direction with 7.2 seconds to play. Beekman then got free on the left wing for the winning shot.
Virginia jumped to an 8-2 lead, causing a Duke timeout. Later in the half, a 15-3 run capped by a Franklin 3-pointer for the Cavaliers made it 32-20.
The Blue Devils went more than 8 1/2 minutes with scoring only three points. They faced their largest halftime deficit of the season at 34-29, and it would have been worse for Duke if not for a pair of 3-point baskets from reserve Bates Jones.
This marked Duke’s only home game during a six-game stretch.
The teams meet for the rematch Feb. 23 in Charlottesville.
–Field Level Media
