ATLANTA — De’Andre Hunter scored 17 points and No. 2 Virginia won its ninth straight game, 64-48 over Georgia Tech on Thursday night.
It was another defensive masterpiece by the Cavaliers (17-1, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who limited Georgia Tech to 40.5 percent shooting and forced 18 turnovers.
Virginia snapped a four-game winning streak for the Yellow Jackets (10-8, 3-2).
After making the first basket of the game, Georgia Tech quickly got an idea of what kind of night it would be. The Jackets missed their next eight shots and turned it over four times before Josh Okogie finally broke a nearly eight-minute scoreless drought with a dunk off a backdoor pass.
Virginia led 28-19 at halftime, and Georgia Tech never got any closer the rest of the way.
The last gasp for the home team essentially came in the closing seconds of the first half. It looked as though the Jackets would go to the locker room on a bit of a high after Curtis Haywood hit his second 3-pointer of the first half, closing the gap to 24-19.
But Hunter got free in the corner and knocked down a trey with 0.1 seconds left in the half, turning it into a four-point play when Abdoulaye Gueye foolishly went for the block and sent the Virginia player sprawling to the court.
The free throw gave the Cavaliers their biggest lead of the half.
They steadily pulled away over the final 20 minutes. Ty Jerome added 12 points, while Devon Hall and Kyle guy had 11 apiece.
Tadric Jackson led Georgia Tech with 14 points. No one else was in double figures.
The Cavaliers held an opponent under 50 points for the eighth time this season. They came into the night allowing the fewest points of any Division I team, and actually improved on their 52.9 average.
Okogie, averaging 18.8 points per game, struggled to get open and finished with just nine points on 3-of-8 shooting. Big man Ben Lammers had an even tougher night, hitting just 1 of 5 shots and finishing with four points. It was an especially disappointing performance considering the Yellow Jackets drew their first sellout of the season at 8,600-seat McCamish Pavilion.
Virginia plays its second straight ACC road game at Wake Forest on Sunday.
Georgia Tech faces a short turnaround before traveling to Chapel Hill on Saturday for another game against a ranked opponent, No. 15 North Carolina.
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