No. 16 Virginia hangs on after wild second half rally to stun No. 5 Baylor

Though they nearly let it slip away, Tony Bennett and the Cavaliers picked up a much-needed upset win on Friday night in Las Vegas.

No. 16 Virginia, thanks to a huge run to open the second half, stunned No. 5 Baylor 86-79 at T-Mobile Arena. The win came in what was the first major athletic event for the university since three Cavaliers football players were shot and killed on campus on Sunday.

Baylor had a solid handle on the game early on, and took a three-point lead to the locker room at the break. That, though, is when Virginia finally sparked.

The Cavaliers used a massive 22-3 run spanning nearly seven minutes early in the second half to completely blow the game open. They were suddenly up to a 21-point lead, and went 8-of-11 from behind the arc during that stretch. Everything was falling, and there seemed to be nothing the Bears could do about it.

Baylor eventually fought its way out of that hole, and cut the game back to single digits repeatedly late in the half with mini runs of its own. The Bears got it to just six points with a Dale Bonner layup with just a minute left, too. That, however, was as close as they got.

Virginia held on and went 7-of-8 from the free throw line in the final stretch to seal the seven-point win.

Armaan Franklin led the Cavaliers with a career-high 25 points in the win while shooting 7-of-12 from the field. Kadin Shedrick added 17 points, and Reece Beekman finished with 10 points and 10 assists.

Keyonte George led Baylor with 20 points, and LJ Cryer finished with 19 while shooting 8-of-12 from the field. The B

Virginia will now take on the winner of UCLA and Illinois in Las Vegas on Sunday. Baylor will go up against the loser of that matchup to wrap up the four-team event in Nevada.

This post will be updated with more information shortly.