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The No. 13 Furman Paladins shocked the No. 4 Virginia Cavaliers with a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left to win 68-67 in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. JP Pegues drained the three-pointer to help the Paladins reach the second round, the second game to tip on the first day of the tourney. The No. 8 Maryland Terrapins advanced after a win over No. 9 WVU as the first game.
OH MY GOD FURMAN pic.twitter.com/8ZZ0pXHj0H
— Tag The Roll (@TagTheRoll) March 16, 2023
The Paladins will advance to face the winner of No. 5 San Diego State vs. No. 12 Charleston, who played on Thursday at 3:10 p.m. ET on truTV. This isn’t the first time the Virginia Cavaliers have been shocked in the first round of the tournament. Everyone will remember when UVA became the first No. 1 overall seed to lose to a No. 16 seed UMBC back in 2018. The Cavaliers would go on to win a national championship after that in 2019.
UVA had a timeout before the turnover that led to Pegues’ three-pointer. The play was insane. Heaving the ball in the air hoping that the clock runs out is not something you’d expect from a Tony Bennett coached team.
This isn’t as big of an upset as people think. Furman was only a 5.5 point underdog on the spread and was seeing more of the bets. In terms of the ML, more people were on the Cavs at -245 at around 80% on DraftKings Sportsbook. Jalen Slawson scored 19 points and had 10 rebounds for the Paladins.