By Jerry Ratcliffe

Butler coach Thad Matta was so excited about the outcome of Sunday afternoon’s 80-73 victory over previously unbeaten Virginia that he wanted to “cut the nets down” at The Greenbrier resort’s makeshift ballroom basketball court.

Matta’s Bulldogs (5-1) matched Virginia’s (5-1) physicality and limited the Cavaliers’ two most menacing figures from Friday’s first day of action in the event — Thijs De Ridder and Chance Mallory — to escape the weekend unblemished. Butler defeated South Carolina on Friday, while De Ridder (26 points) and Mallory (16) were nearly unstoppable in UVA’s Friday win over Northwestern.

Sunday was a different story as De Ridder, who took a blow to his right eye and never really shook it off, scored 10 points on a 4-of-10 shooting performance, while Mallory was held at bay with 11 points (4 for 13).

“They brought the fight to us with their screens, with their physicality and just their aggression, and it shocked us for the first four or five minutes of the game,” said UVA’s Malik Thomas, who led the Cavaliers in scoring with 24 points (9 for 17). “After we got acclimated to it, we adjusted, but we kind of dug ourselves a hole.”

Virginia started slow offensively for the second straight outing, but this time couldn’t shoot its way out of the slump (29 of 71 from the field; 8 of 27 from the arc).

Three consecutive unanswered 3-pointers by Butler midway through the first half opened a 22-13 lead, but a 10-0 run late in the half — 5 of those points coming from Jacari White — allowed the Cavaliers to whittle the margin to a single bucket, 44-42, at the break.

The Wahoos, boosted by a partisan crowd, took their only lead of the contest early in the second half, 49-48, on three straight Thomas buckets. From that point, UVA maintained contact with Butler, but the Bulldogs always seemed to answer every charge.

Led by Finley Bizjack’s game-high 25 points (9 of 18) and 17 from Michael Ajayi (7 for 14, 14 rebounds), Butler began to separate midway through the period. Leading 59-56, the Bulldogs opened a 7-point lead when Virginia’s Ryan Odom was tagged with a technical foul for protesting a traveling call on De Ridder.

The Cavaliers could never close to less than four points the rest of the way.

“My technical certainly hurt our team, which I’m sorry for, unacceptable for me to do that at that given time,” said Odom, “but it goes back to Butler being their day. Thad and his staff did a great job gameplanning for us.”

Asked about the plan in preventing De Ridder and Mallory to go off in the game, Matta didn’t reveal too much strategy.

“[De Ridder] is a heck of a player and can get you so many different ways, and they do a tremendous job of creating advantages for him,” Matta said. “With that said, Michael Ajayi is a heck of a defender. I think Michael probably had a lot to do with that.

“Mallory is so fast and shifty, along with Thomas. We wanted to give as much [defensive] support as we could but we didn’t want to give them open 3’s either. I think we did a pretty good job of guarding the 3-point line (8 of 27).”

Virginia’s defense was a bit shaky as Butler was 27 for 56 (48 percent) and 6 of 15 from the arc.

“Let’s see, we missed 30 shots and I think the big fella blocked 27 of them,” Matta quipped.

He was referring to Virginia center Ugonna Onyenso, who was credited with swatting away 8 Butler shots.

“Give Butler a ton of credit,” Odom said. “They answered every challenge that our guys gave them throughout the game. We struggled scoring in the second half and missed some key free throws to stop some of our runs.”

UVA was 4 of 10 from the free-throw line in the second half, missing shots during critical junctures.

Odom said that while his frontline of De Ridder, Onyenso and Johann Grünloh held up for the most part, he believes they can do better. Butler had a big, physical front line as well, something Matta said gives them an advantage most of the time. Odom said that Ajayi is the most athletic forward the Cavaliers have faced so far this season.

“Obviously, Thijs getting hit in the eye impacted him,” Odom said. “He wouldn’t tell you that, but it impacted him a little bit throughout. He kept having to come out and (trainer) Ethan Saliba working on him every time he’s out. That’s not an excuse for him.”

Virginia returns home with plenty to work on before the Cavaliers move forward.

Odom said improving the defense will be a point of emphasis, along with getting better at the point off the screen, along with rebounding.

“Certainly when we play an elite offensive rebounding team like Butler, it’s imperative that you block out and come up with rebounds,” the coach said. “Offensively, we’ve got to pass the ball a little better. Too much dribbling throughout the weekend.”

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• UVA fell to 5-1 with its first loss
• UVA’s five-game streak of scoring 80 or more points ended
• UVA allowed a season-high 80 points
• UVA gained its first lead of 49-48 at 16:46 of the second half
• UVA is 30-39 all-time against current BIG EAST Conference members
• UVA trailed at the half (44-42) for the first time this season
• UVA ended the first half on a 12-3 run
• UVA used a 10-2 run to cut the Butler lead to two at 28-26
• Butler used a 9-0 run to gain a 22-13 lead before a Jacari White 3-pointer
• Butler started the game on a 9-2 run
• UVA forced three shot clock violations (6 in 2025-26)
• UVA tied a season high with 11 blocked shots (11 vs. NC Central)
• UVA was out-rebounded (43-39) for the first time this season

Series Notes

• Virginia is 1-1 all-time vs. Butler
• UVA defeated the Bulldogs 77-69 in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Malik Thomas (24), Jacari White (14), Chance Mallory (11), Thijs De Ridder (10)
• Thomas had a season-high 24 points
• Thomas reached double figures for the fifth time at UVA (60 career)
• De Ridder reached double figures for the fifth time at UVA
• White reached double figures for the third time at UVA (54 career)
• Mallory reached double figures for the fourth time
• Mallory (3 steals) has multiple steals in every game
• Ugonna Onyenso (8 blocks) has multiple blocks in four games
• Onyenso’s eight blocks are most for UVA since Jay Huff blocked 10 shots vs. Duke on Feb. 29, 2020
• Johann Grünloh has two or more blocks in every game
• UVA started Dallin Hall, Sam Lewis, Grünloh, Thomas and De Ridder for the sixth straight game