National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Virginia 72, Syracuse 69
When: 12:00 PM ET, Thursday, March 11, 2021
Where: Greensboro Coliseum Complex, Greensboro, North Carolina
Officials: # Bert Smith, # Tony Henderson, # Jamie Luckie
Attendance: N/A

Reece Beekman hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for his only points of the game, and top-seeded Virginia survived with a 72-69 win over eight-seed Syracuse in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday.

Beekman was 0-for-5 from the field until he took a pass from Kihei Clark and made just his ninth 3-pointer of the season, from the right wing, to send the Cavaliers (18-6) to a third straight win. Sam Hauser scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half and Jay Huff had 13 with 12 rebounds for No. 16 Virginia, which trailed by as many as 11 in the first half before shooting 46.2 percent in the second half.

Virginia meets fourth-seeded Georgia Tech in Friday's semifinals.The Yellow Jackets defeated Miami 70-66.

Buddy Boeheim had a career-high 31 points on 10-of-17 shooting for Syracuse (16-9). The Orange had won three in a row, but now must await their NCAA Tournament fate.

After Boeheim's 3-pointer tied the game at 59, Trey Murphy III (15 points) knocked down one of his own with 3:34 left to give Virginia a lead that eventually reached six with 2:07 to play. However, Boeheim scored six of the game's next 10 points to tie things at 69-69 with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game.

Syracuse led 37-26 with just over six minutes left in the first half. However, Virginia finally found its form to go on a 16-2 run that spanned halftime. The Cavaliers closed the first half on a 6-0 run to trail by three at the break.

Murphy opened the second half with a 3-pointer and Hauser's following long-distance bucket with 17:52 to play gave the Cavaliers their first lead at 42-39. The Orange snapped a scoring drought of more than six minutes with Boeheim's off-balanced basket with 17:19 to go to trigger a back-and-forth run to the finish.

Syracuse scored the first seven points of the game, with Boeheim responsible for five of them. The junior guard made his first three 3-pointers and Robert Braswell (10 points) connected on his first four shot attempts, including two from distance.

The Orange shot 43.3 percent over the first 20 minutes, but went the final 3:57 without a point. Virginia, meanwhile, got a three-point play from Huff and a 3-pointer from Hauser to cut its deficit to 39-36 by the break, despite shooting 3-of-16 from distance over the first 20 minutes.

Quincy Guerrier added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Syracuse.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Syracuse   Virginia
Buddy Boeheim 31 Scoring Sam Hauser 21
Marek Dolezaj 4 Assists Kihei Clark 6
Quincy Guerrier 10 Rebounds Jay Huff 12
Buddy Boeheim 6 Free Throws Made Jay Huff 5
Joseph Girard III 3 Steals Reece Beekman 2
Alan Griffin 2 Blocks Jay Huff 4
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Syracuse 69 42.1 8-22 13-17 16 27 3 6 7
Virginia 72 45.5 11-35 11-12 17 31 7 5 12