By Scott Ratcliffe

No. 15 Virginia escaped the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee with a 61-58 win over Florida State on Tuesday night, thanks to some late-game heroics on both ends of the floor.

The Wahoos trailed for the majority of Tuesday’s ACC tilt, but never got too far out of striking distance and closed the night on an 11-1 scoring run over the final 5:53 of the game. Jacari White had a monster night, and did a lot of his damage down the stretch, in crunch time.

With the victory, the Cavaliers (21-3, 10-2 ACC) have now won five straight overall and five straight against the Seminoles. UVA is 9-2 away from Charlottesville, including an impressive 7-1 mark in true road contests.

With the Cavaliers trailing by six, White knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to set up a Chance Mallory floater that tied the score at 45-apiece with over 12 minutes remaining.

The Seminoles (11-13, 4-7) punched back with 9 unanswered points to take their largest lead of the evening, 54-45, with 8:22 on the clock. Robert McCray V, FSU’s leading scorer, capped the spurt with an old-fashioned three-point play.

White sank another triple — his fourth of the game — on the ensuing possession, keeping the Hoos within six points and not letting things get out of hand.

Following the under-eight TV timeout, White connected on a jumper to cut it to four, but Florida State’s Lajae Jones responded with a 3-pointer of his own to push the Noles’ lead back to seven, 57-50, with 6:33 to go. That would mark their last made field goal of the night, as they went on to misfire on all of their following 10 field-goal attempts.

Seven-foot veteran Ugonna Onyenso made his presence felt in crunch time, slamming one down hard to get the deficit back to five. On the other end, he bothered the shot of Alex Steen, then snagged an offensive rebound on the ensuing trip that led to another 3-ball from White, and first-year FSU coach Luke Loucks had to burn a timeout to squelch the momentum with 5:11 left, with the once-comfortable advantage down to just two points, 57-55.

After McCray split a pair of free throws with 4:54 on the clock, it was all Cavaliers from there. Thijs De Ridder cut it to one on a jumpshot against the 2-3 zone as the game clock went under three minutes.

With 1:12 to play, White got past his defender and drove hard to the lane for an explosive dunk to put UVA on top to stay. Onyenso secured the rebound on FSU’s ensuing miss, and De Ridder made it a three-point affair with a strong take to the rack with 25.9 to go.

Jones missed a 3-pointer that would have tied it, and De Ridder grabbed the rebound, and the Seminoles still had a pair of fouls to give, and stopped the clock with 8.2 ticks showing. On the inbounds pass, Sam Lewis mishandled the rock and turned it over on the sideline, giving the home team one last crack at it.

With just 4.4 seconds left out of a Seminoles timeout, McCray released a double-clutch, off-balance shot from the wing, and De Ridder was there for another rebound with 0.3 seconds left. Devin Tillis then launched the ball down the court as the final horn sounded.

It was UVA that got out to a hot start Tuesday, jumping out to a 10-4 lead on a Malik Thomas triple prior to the first media timeout.

The Seminoles took the lead on a three-point play from Jones midway through the half, as the Cavaliers went cold.

With the Hoos trailing 26-19, Mallory injected some life into the offense, nailing a 3-pointer, then dropping a dime to Tillis before scoring amongst the trees to get his team back within two, 28-26.

UVA then finished the half on a 6-2 mini-run to knot the score at 32-all heading into the halftime break en route to the victory.

Virginia shot 38 percent for the game (23 for 61 FG), 30 percent from long range (10 for 33) and made 5 of 8 from the foul line (63 percent), winning the rebounding battle by 10, 47-37.

The Hoos committed 14 turnovers, a lot of them sloppy, careless, self-inflicted giveaways that translated into a dozen Seminole points on the opposite end of the court.

White was the only Wahoo in double figures with 19 points (7 of 11 FG; 5 of 9 from deep) in 21 minutes off the bench. De Ridder and Lewis each added 9 points, with De Ridder just missing a double-double with 9 rebounds as well. Mallory scored 7 points and dished out 5 assists, while Onyenso blocked 3 shots to go with his 4 points and 7 boards.

Jones (game-high 21 points) and McCray (20) led the charge for FSU, which saw its three-game win streak come to an end. The Seminoles were held to 29-percent shooting — including just 18 percent from downtown (6 for 33) — while connecting on 16 of 22 (73 percent) from the charity stripe.

The Cavaliers are in the midst of a three-game road trip, and then four of the final five regular-season contests will be played at John Paul Jones Arena, with the one road game being a big one — on Saturday, Feb. 28 at Duke.

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• No. 15 Virginia improved to 21-3, 10-2 ACC
• Ryan Odom’s 21 wins are tied with Jeff Jones for most wins by a first-year head coach at UVA
• UVA’s 61 points marked a season low
• UVA used a 6-0 run to gain a 61-58 lead
• UVA is 9-2 away from home, including a 7-1 mark in true road games
• UVA (10 3-pointers) extended its school record with 10 or more 3-pointers to 15 games
• UVA (33 3-point attempts) has attempted 30 or more 3-pointers in nine games
• UVA won the rebound battle 47-37
• UVA and FSU were tied at 32-32 at the half
• UVA’s eight free throw attempts marked a season low

Series Notes

• Virginia is 31-28 all-time vs. Florida State, including an 11-17 mark in Tallahassee in a series that dates to 1991-92
• UVA has a five-game win streak in the series
• UVA has limited Florida State to fewer than 70 points in 24 of the last 26 meetings

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Jacari White (19)
• White has reached double figures in eight games (59 career)
• White’s 19 points were his most since scoring 25 vs. Dayton on Dec. 6, 2025
• White (5 3-pointers) has made five or more 3-pointers in two games
• Ugonna Onyenso (3 blocks) has multiple blocks in 15 games
• Onyenso added four points and seven rebounds
• Devin Tillis matched a season high with seven rebounds
• UVA started Dallin Hall, Malik Thomas, Thijs De Ridder, Sam Lewis and Johann Grünloh for the 23rd game

UP NEXT

Virginia will briefly step out of conference play for an 8-p.m., neutral-site tipoff against Ohio State on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn. The game will be televised nationally on FOX.

This Week’s ACC Scoreboard

Monday
Louisville 118, NC State 77

Tuesday
Virginia 61, Florida State 58
Miami 75, North Carolina 66
SMU 89, Notre Dame 81
Duke 70, Pitt 54

Wednesday
Virginia Tech 76, Clemson 66
Syracuse 107, California 100 (2OT)
Wake Forest 83, Georgia Tech 67
Stanford 70, Boston College 64

Saturday
Virginia vs. Ohio State, 8 p.m. (FOX)***
Clemson at Duke, Noon (ESPN)
Georgia Tech at Notre Dame, Noon (The CW)
California at Boston College, Noon (ACCN)
Pitt at North Carolina, 2 p.m. (ESPN)
Florida State at Virginia Tech, 2 p.m. (ACCN)
SMU at Syracuse, 2 p.m. (The CW)
Louisville at Baylor, 4 p.m. (ESPN)
Stanford at Wake Forest, 4 p.m. (ACCN)
Miami at NC State, 4 p.m. (ESPN2)
*** — Nashville, Tenn.