Virginia won’t be repeating as national champions of college basketball.
Playing in its first NCAA tournament game since winning the national championship in 2019 (last year’s tournament was canceled due to COVID-19), Virginia saw its season end on Saturday at the hands of Ohio University, which earned a 62-58 win over the Cavaliers in a first-round West region game.
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Leading 38-31 with 14:35 remaining in the game, the No. 4-seeded Cavaliers went cold offensively, going over 10 minutes without a field goal and seeing No. 13 seed Ohio go on a 16-2 run to take a 47-40 lead with 4:43 remaining.
Virginia fought within two points on two different occasions after that, but Ohio took a 56-49 lead with 1:07 remaining on a 3-pointer just before the shot clock expired by Ben Roderick.
Virginia pulled within three points at 58-55 with 13.3 seconds left on a layup by Jay Huff, but two free throws by Mark Sears gave Ohio a 60-55 lead with 12.3 seconds remaining.
Trey Murphy then hit a 3-pointer with 7.0 seconds left to make it 60-58 Ohio, but the Bobcats sealed the game with 5.0 seconds left on two free throws by Lunden McDay that made it 62-58.
Virginia was the last team to arrive in Indianapolis for the tournament, doing so on Friday after being quarantined due to COVID-19 protocols.