Virginia in firm control of ACC
The Atlantic Coast Conference’s stretch run looks more like a coronation than a race.
Second-ranked Virginia has all but wrapped up the league’s regular- season championship and could rise to No. 1 in the Top 25 on Monday for the first time since the Ralph Sampson era. The rest of the league is far behind — No. 16 Clemson is the closest at three games back — and playing for postseason positioning amid a jumbled mess in the standings with roughly three weeks left.
Consider: six teams are within two games of the second-place Tigers in the loss column, including No. 9 Duke, No. 21 North Carolina and No. 25 Miami.
“Somebody is going to come out of that pack,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said after Wednesday’s loss to Virginia. “We hope that’s going to be us.”
The intrigue now is focused on who will claim the remaining top four seeds at next month’s ACC Tournament in Brooklyn and the double- round bye that comes with them.
At this point, that’s all anyone can hope for consid- ering how well the Cavaliers are playing.
Virginia (23-1, 12-0 ACC) has won 15 straight games going into Saturday’s home game against Virginia Tech. A win over the Hokies would keep them on course for something that once seemed unthinkable: becoming an unbeaten regular-season champion.
Only eight teams have ever gone unbeaten through the ACC regular season, the last being Duke (16-0) in 1998-99.
“The guys have done a terrific job,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said after his team rallied to win at Florida State on Wednesday. “Would I have thought we’d be 12-0 at this point? Probably not, but they’re playing the right way and they don’t quit, that’s for sure.” Rhode Island 72, Davidson 59: Cyril Langevine scored a career-high 14 points and added eight rebounds in 22 minutes, and Jarvis Garrett scored all 17 of his points in the second half for No. 18 Rhode Island (20-3, 12-0 Atlantic 10). The Rams have won 15 consecutive games. Kellan Grady scored 19 for Davidson (1310, 8-4). Fourth-line center Jay Beagle put Washington ahead for good with his 50th career goal, and the Capitals continued their dominance against the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 4-2 victory on Friday night.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Lars Eller each had a goal and an assist as Washington swept a home-and-home with Columbus and won its sixth straight against the Blue Jackets dating to last season. John Carlson also scored and Braden Holtby made 35 saves.
The Metropolitan Division leaders won for the fourth time in six games despite being outshot 37-17 by the visitors.
Pierre Luc-Dubois and Artemi Panarin scored for the Blue Jackets, who have lost five straight. Columbus’ struggles on the penalty kill continued with Eller’s power-play goal, marking a seventh straight game allowing at least one.
Columbus quickly answered each of Washington’s first two goals, but the Capitals grabbed control over a 90-second stretch of the second period.