Expectations were low for the Virginia basketball team as it headed to Pittsburgh, understandably with one team facing one of its worst seasons in more than a decade and the other fighting for an NCAA Tournament spot.
If someone dropped into the Petersen Events Center sight unseen on Monday night, they would have come away with a very different opinion on who was who. UVA used a 17-0 run in the first half to open up a big lead over Pitt and silenced The Oakland Zoo on the way to a 73-57 win. That was Virginia’s first Quad 1 win of the season after going 0-7 previously and just the team's second road win of the year, both coming in the last week. The Hoos held a 15-point lead at halftime despite Isaac McKneely, the team's leading scorer, being held to 0 points in the first half and Elijah Saunders, the team's second-leading scorer, out injured for the third straight game.
Interim coach Ron Sanchez and company moved to 11-12 overall and 4-8 in ACC play, moving the Cavaliers two games towards safety to make the ACC Tournament as only the top 15 league teams earn a spot in the event.
"I told them in the locker room, we had a 15-point lead and IMac had not scored," Sanchez said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. "For us to be in that position without IMac scoring, with having Elijah on the bench and not being able to play, getting contributions from everyone I think that was a big, big one for the guys."
Dai Dai Ames was the catalyst for the shocker in Pittsburgh, scoring a career-high 27 points and the most by a Cavalier this season. Ames already had matched his previous career-high of 16 points by halftime and remained the North Star leading the Wahoos throughout.
"My brothers were happy for me," Ames told the Virginia Sports Radio Network about the jubilation in the locker room. "I had a great game, we all had a great game out there on the offensive and defensive end. So us just being happy we came out with a win, a tough road win."
Blake Buchanan finished with the second double-double of his career with 10 points and 11 boards. Andrew Rohde continued to play metronome for Virginia while nearly racking up a triple-double with 9 points, 7 rebounds and a career-high 9 assists without any turnovers.
Here are three takeaways from a much-needed bright moment for Virginia this season.
Training Wheels Off For Dai Dai Ames
Ron Sanchez hoped his young guard Dai Dai Ames would continue to grow after scoring in double figures for the first time since November with 11 points against Virginia Tech on Saturday. He probably did not see a 27-point outing coming in the near future though.
"Honestly Dai Dai has a spectacular game," Sanchez said.
Ames started the 17-0 run for the Cavaliers with a 3 to give Virginia a 5-4 early lead, a lead it never relinquished. But when Ames hit a step-back midrange jumper with 12 minutes left in the first half, that is when he knew something special was happening.
"I was just feeling like nobody could guard me," Ames said. "Me being confident that my shots were going in, things were just happening."
Confidence has been hard to find consistently this season for Ames as his minutes have fluctuated, injuries have popped up, and as he tried to find a role in a struggling team. The 11 points against Virginia Tech displayed some of the excitement fans found in watching the explosive Chicago guard earlier in the season as one of the few players who could consistently attack the rim.
The training wheels slowly rattled off against the Hokies, especially when he crossed over his defender and hit a step-back jumper. Monday night was different though as Ames had the chance to show everything in his bag, including just his second dunk in a Virginia uniform when Blake Buchanan found him while sitting on the floor to cap off the 27-point effort.
"I really didn't think he saw me, but he looked and just threw it back and that's when I went down and dunked the ball," Ames said.
Ames is just the fourth player this season to score 20-plus points in a game for UVA, following Isaac McKneely (4 games), Elijah Saunders (2), and Taine Murray, who got there recently in the win at Miami. Sanchez believes Ames is just the latest Cavalier to have their statement night in a season begging for more of them.
"I think it's next man up," Sanchez said. "I think at Miami it was Taine that had a spectacular night, tonight it was Dai Dai, different guys keep improving."
UVA Centers Finding Ways To Contribute
Without Elijah Saunders for a third straight game, Virginia was again thin down low but the "next man" mentality carried over.
Blake Buchanan finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds, his second career double-double, while making several hustle plays on the floor like the pass to Dai Dai Ames for the dunk to finish off the win. The sophomore ended up playing a career-high 39 minutes for the Cavaliers. He's had at least 6 points in five of the last nine games and at least 5 rebounds in six of the last nine games.
Meanwhile, Anthony Robinson continued to take steps with his best overall game of the season. The redshirt freshman finished with a career-high 9 points and 7 rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench. Robinson’s impact was clear even without the stats, pulling the biggest box plus/minus of the game with a +19. This is the fourth time in 2025 that he's posted 4+ rebounds.
"We did some of those small things that we've been trying to improve on during the season really well tonight and I'm hoping we can continue to stack some of those performances," Sanchez said.
UVA again used its two-center lineup with Buchanan and Robinson with good results. The two are proving to be two of the better screeners on the team, bring energy on the offensive and defensive glass as Virginia outrebounded Pitt 33-21, and have begun to finish more consistently around the rim. No play better displayed that than a basket that never counted, when Robinson was fouled from behind on a dunk attempt that rattled in, but officials called the basket off.
Virginia has needed energy in large doses this season and the two bigs lineup for the Cavaliers has provided it as of late.
A Bright Moment In A Dim Season
One of the toughest questions to answer this season with any NCAA Tournament hopes long gone and plenty of questions swirling already about what happens once the final buzzer sounds is what reason is there to watch. The best answer has been for fun moments, memorable performances, and upsets like Monday
night.
Virginia was a 12.5-point underdog going to face a Pitt team in desperate need of a bounce back win to stay on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. But UVA played like the hungrier team behind a memorable performance by Dai Dai Ames and the best collective game from the team under Ron Sanchez this season.
"It was probably our most united effort on both sides of the ball," Sanchez said. "We shared the ball well offensively, we guarded them really well, especially to start the game and we didn't let go from there."
There have been other slightly less dim seasons in recent UVA memory, like the 2021-22 NIT season. Most will still talk about Reece Beekman's buzzer-beater in Cameron Indoor Stadium to pickup a rare road win over Duke, though. Monday night was not at the same level as that performance, but it will give Virginia fans a night to talk about and go to bed happy with.
Even more so, it will give a Virginia team something to enjoy after a trying year. From Tony Bennett's retirement to sudden transfers to multiple 20-point defeats and even the three one possession losses at John Paul Jones Arena this season. But Monday night in Pittsburgh will be a happy memory for the group.
"We were just locked in," Ames said. "We knew we needed this game and did what we have to do to come out with the win."
Now Virginia will enter an emotional home game on Saturday against Georgia Tech, as the University prepares to honor Tony Bennett. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
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