Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball's 84-70 Loss at Syracuse

Virginia (15-16, 8-12 ACC) suffered an 84-70 loss at Syracuse (13-18, 7-13 ACC) in the regular season finale on Saturday night at JMA Wireless Dome. Let's break down some key takeaways from the Cavaliers' loss to the Orange.

Virginia starts slow, never catches up

This one went sideways from the jump for the Cavaliers. The Orange jumped out to an 8-2 lead, led by as many 19 in the first half, and led wire-to-wire. Virginia missed its first five shots, made just one shot in the first five minutes of the game, and things didn't get much better as UVA struggled to find a rhythm offensively until it was too late. More concerning, though, was that the Cavaliers couldn't get a stop on defense, allowing Syracuse to shoot 59.6% from the floor, its best mark in ACC play and its second-best team shooting percentage of the entire season. So when UVA finally got going offensively in the second half, the Cavaliers couldn't get nearly enough stops to get anywhere close to the Orange on the scoreboard. It was a poor performance on both ends of the floor for Virginia against a Syracuse team that isn't nearly as good as it looked on Saturday night.

Hoos go cold in the Dome

Virginia wins when the threes are falling. That much has been obvious in most of UVA's victories this season. Well, the threes were not falling on Saturday night in the Dome for the Cavaliers, who went 1/8 from beyond the arc in the first half and 3/15 for the game. Credit to the Orange for contesting Virginia's shots well, but Isaac McKneely (41.7% from three for the season) went 1/6, Andrew Rohde (42.0%) went 0/2, and Elijah Saunders (38.8%) went 0/3. UVA won't win (m)any games in the ACC Tournament shooting the ball like that.

Jacob Cofie comes to play

We'll go with a positive takeaway here and that was Jacob Cofie's offensive performance in this game. After scoring 12 points in Virginia's win at Wake Forest, Cofie did not score at all in either of UVA's next two games. He got back on track with an excellent showing off the bench at Syracuse scoring 13 points on a perfect 6/6 from the floor to go along with four rebounds, one block, and one steal in 24 minutes. He also had only one turnover. Cofie needed to be better on the defensive end, as did the entire Cavalier front court (which we'll get to momentarily), but Cofie's offensive outing was a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing night for the Hoos in Upstate New York.

UVA's front court gets bullied

Unfortunately for Cofie and the Cavaliers, his performance wasn't the first or even second-best individual showing by a front court player in this game. Syracuse center Eddie Lampkin, who came into this game averaging 11.1 points per game, was a game-wrecker in the paint, finishing with 25 points on a near flawless 11/12 shooting from the floor to go along with 10 rebounds, two assists, a block, and a steal. Whenever Virginia threatened to make it a game again with a couple of baskets, Lampkin was there with another relatively easy bucket inside. Lampkin's front court partner Jyare Davis also had a good game, scoring 15 points on 6/11 shooting, including 2/3 from beyond the arc, and dishing out four assists. Lampkin and Davis scored or assisted on 23 of Syracuse's 31 made baskets, dominating the front court battle with Virginia's overmatched bigs.

Virginia still gets the first round bye in the ACC Tournament

Due to the other results around the Atlantic Coast Conference on Saturday, by the early stages of UVA's game at Syracuse, it was confirmed that Virginia was locked in to the No. 9 seed for the ACC Tournament regardless of the outcome of the game. So even with the loss, the Cavaliers managed to find their way to the final first round bye and now get a somewhat advantageous second round matchup against No. 8 seed Georgia Tech, a team UVA defeated fairly easily 75-61 back on February 8th in Charlottesville. That said, the Yellow Jackets have proven to be a dangerous team many times this season and they could very well get revenge on the Hoos in the rematch. Getting the first round bye and a winnable matchup is where the fun ends for the Cavaliers, as the winner of Virginia-Georgia Tech draws the juggernaut Duke, which earned the No. 1 seed and the outright ACC regular season title and won a league-record 19 ACC games this season, in Thursday's quarterfinals.

Virginia will take on Georgia Tech in the second round of the 2025 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament on Wednesday at 12pm ET at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina and the game will be televised on ESPN.

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