PHILADELPHIA — Jacari White scored a season-high 26 points and hit the go-ahead floater off the glass as No. 3 seed Virginia survived a tough test from No. 14 Wright State 82-73 in a Midwest Region first-round game of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
White made 6 of 8 3-point attempts, Sam Lewis scored 12 points, Malik Thomas added 11 and Thijs De Ridder had 10 for Virginia (30-5), which won a tournament game for the first time since its 2019 national championship.
The Cavaliers trailed by five at halftime but shot 56.5% from the field in the second half. A late 11-0 run was the difference, with White’s layup putting them ahead for good at 71-70.
They’ll face the winner between No. 6 Tennessee and No. 11 Miami (Ohio) in the second round Sunday.
“It feels good knowing that I can have a performance like that and help us win a game,” White said. “It’s a lot of our first time being here, and I know for it being my last year, I didn’t want for it to end so early. I love this group of guys that I’m with right now.”
Michael Imariagbe had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Wright State (23-12), the Horizon League champions. Solomon Callaghan added 18 points and combined with Imariagbe to shoot 9 for 15 from behind the arc. The Raiders made 13 3-pointers, the most Virginia has allowed this season.
“I have absolutely no regrets for how they competed, how they showed up, how they stayed together through the course of this game,” Wright State coach Clint Sargent said. “I think they’ll continue to look back on this season and understand how different it was because of how they showed up every single day for each other.”
Imariagbe had five 3-pointers after entering the day with just four in his entire 94-game career.
After the Raiders’ TJ Burch (15 points) broke a tie with a three-point play, White’s 3-pointer launched a 9-0 Virginia run for a 67-61 edge at the 8:18 mark. But the Raiders ripped off nine in a row themselves, capped by two technical free throws when Lewis accidentally tossed the ball into an opponent’s face after a whistle.
Following White’s go-ahead shot, Dallin Hall got a key offensive rebound and handed it off to Johann Grunloh under the basket to set up another two. Grunloh made it a 75-70 game one possession later and finished with eight points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
“We get up 67-61, and they go on a run, 68-67, and we were reeling a little bit,” Virginia coach Ryan Odom said. “I thought our guys did a nice job in that moment of rallying and finding a way to focus on what the task at hand was. We were in a possession ballgame at that point, and our guys did a great job finding Jacari certainly, but then getting key stops when we needed them.”
In a first half with 11 lead changes and six ties, Wright State established a 16-13 lead in a run of five made shots — including Callaghan’s first three 3-pointers.
White, a 3-point sniper off Virginia’s bench all season, knocked down three of his own to either take the lead or tie the game, but the Raiders answered each time.
Callaghan’s tiebreaking 3 with 1:32 left circled the drain and prompted a 7-2 run to close the half, handing Wright State a 43-38 edge.
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
