Virginia whips Georgia Tech in ACC Tournament

WASHINGTON — Senior guard Malcolm Brogdon scored 26 points as No. 4 Virginia dispatched upstart Georgia Tech 72-52 in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals Thursday night at the Verizon Center.

Virginia (25-6) meets the winner of the Virginia Tech-Miami quarterfinal in Friday night’s second semifinal.

Brogdon made 10 of 15 shots from the field, including three of six 3-point attempts. He finished two points short of his career high.

Forward Anthony Gill added 12 points for second-seeded Virginia, which reached the ACC tournament semifinals for the third year in a row.

The Cavaliers enjoyed a heavily partisan crowd in pushing their winning streak to four games and avenging a regular-season loss.

Guard Adam Smith scored 16 points for 10th-seeded Georgia Tech, which won seven of its previous nine games. Smith pumped in four 3-point baskets.

The Yellow Jackets (19-14) sustained their most lopsided loss of the season, with a 17-point November setback to Villanova the previous low point.

Georgia Tech scoring leader Marcus Georges-Hunt was held to seven points, hitting only one of eight field-goal attempts.

Virginia built a 44-32 lead by early in the second half, holding the Yellow Jackets to four points in the first six minutes after halftime. The spread reached 20 points with more than six minutes remaining.

The Cavaliers were almost spotless in the second half, playing the first 16 minutes with only one turnover.

Virginia took a 30-28 lead to the halftime break despite appearing capable of stretching a lead.

Brogdon had 14 first-half points, more than twice as many as any other player in the game.

Georgia Tech countered with eight players making the scoring column in the first 20 minutes.

Yet it took Georgia Tech, which advanced to the quarterfinals with Wednesday night’s overtime victory against Clemson, nearly four minutes to score.

It was Virginia that went into an offensive tailspin as the Yellow Jackets built a 16-11 lead.

Georgia Tech, though, scored only six points across a span of nearly the next nine minutes as the Cavaliers surged to a 28-22 lead. Virginia made only one of its last six shots of the first half.

NOTES: Virginia senior G Malcolm Brodgon was the first player in ACC history to be named the conference’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. … Brogdon is Virginia’s first ACC Player of the Year since Ralph Sampson in the early 1980s. … Georgia Tech won the lone regular-season meeting, 68-64, on Jan. 9 in Atlanta. … Each of Georgia Tech’s last seven games prior to Thursday were decided by six points or less. … The last time the ACC tournament was held at the Verizon Center, Georgia Tech reached the 2005 final, losing to Duke.