By Jerry Ratcliffe

CHARLOTTE — When Jacari White went on a heater in the second half of Virginia’s showdown with Dayton on Saturday afternoon, Flyers coach Anthony Grant knew his team was in severe trouble.

Meanwhile, White’s teammates urged him to “keep shooting until you miss.”

“Jacari’s Army,” a group of UVA fans sporting army-green T-shirts adorned with White’s face, were in near hysteria as the transfer from North Dakota State lit up Charlotte’s Spectrum Center with a shooting performance that has to go down as one of the best in Virginia history.

White, who only had 3 points in the first half, finished with a game-high 25. But that’s only part of the story. The 6-foot-3 guard drilled in all eight shots he took in the second half, six from the arc as he went a perfect 7-for-7 from Bonusphere and made all nine field goal attempts.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Virginia led by a single point (39-38) two minutes into the half when White got rolling. During a three-minute span, White scored 13 consecutive points to help the Cavaliers open a huge 21-point bulge (74-53) with only seven minutes to play.

Dayton, 7-3 on the season, didn’t quit. The Flyers assembled their own 14-point run to draw within 74-67 with four minutes to go, but couldn’t keep contact with Virginia, now 8-1.

“That was the game … the first eight minutes, 25-8 to start the second half,” Grant said about UVA’s scoring blitz. “We just can’t afford that.”

Like everyone else in the arena, Grant was stunned by White’s performance.

“He was on the scouting report,” Grant said. “We understood what he did. We just didn’t have the awareness and the readiness to take away what he did.”

It was a big game for both teams, sort of an NCAA Tournament feel in the atmosphere. Virginia, coming off an 88-69 rout of Texas in the ACC/SEC Challenge in Austin earlier in the week, continued to build its resume against a well-respected Dayton squad, which had lost only to No. 9 BYU and to Cincinnati this season.

“Dayton is a really good basketball team,” said UVA’s Ryan Odom. “Their pressure is obviously very good. They do it to other teams and they did it to us today. We had just enough positive plays on offense, in ball movement, to be able to stand.”

The Flyers’ pressure forced a staggering 21 turnovers by Virginia and helped them close the gap during their last gasp attempt to get back in the game late in the second half. Dayton is one of the nation’s best in forcing turnovers.

“That’s something they pride themselves on,” said UVA starting point guard Dallin Hall. “We knew coming into the game that they really wanted to get steals.”

Still, Virginia’s firepower, sparked by White, was too much to overcome.

The Cavaliers had only two players in double figures, White (25) and Chance Mallory (12), but had six other players with 7 or more points. UVA was red-hot most of the game, making 60 percent of its field goal attempts (27-45) and a blazing 60 percent of it’s 3-pointers (12-20).

Virginia’s depth once again was a factor as the Cavaliers had 53 bench points, mostly from White and Mallory.

“There’s a lot of guys on this team that are good enough to start, but we have depth and that’s what makes us really good,” Hall said. “There’s no lull when the second wave comes in.”

Virginia didn’t take its first lead until 6:47 to go in the first half, when Thijs De Ridder hit a baseline jumper for a 20-19 advantage. The Cavaliers managed to take a 37-33 lead into the break on White’s first triple of the game.

The second half was mostly about getting the ball to White and enjoying the outcome.

“It was just one of those performances where every time he was open and he had it, you could hear the crowd going ‘Yes,’ Odom said. “It wasn’t that he hadn’t made the shot yet. You knew that he was probably going to knock it in.

“When he gets in a zone like that, as his coach, it’s like, ‘OK, stay out there.’ How long can I leave him out there before he gets tired.”

The coach wasn’t the only one who heard the crowd’s reaction every time the ball was passed to White in the second half. White noticed, too.

“Like people had their hands up before the ball even touched my hand,” White smiled. “Just to have everybody behind me and the fan support, means a lot.”

Virginia now returns home for a contest against Maryland Eastern Shore on Tuesday.