The Virginia Cavaliers defeated the Wright State Raiders on Friday afternoon. Let's take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of how the game played out.

It wasn't how they drew it up, but Virginia basketball is back in the March Madness win column. The Cavaliers cooled off a hot-shooting Wright State team to down the Raiders, 82-73, in the first

The third-seeded Cavaliers beat fourteenth-seeded Wright State, 82-73, on Friday in Philadelphia, but this was no comfortable first-round cruise. UVA trailed 43-38 at halftime, spent much of the game looking like it was one bad stretch away from another March horror story,

I think when you get to this level, you get to this tournament, all these teams belong here,” Odom said. “Certainly, there were tense moments back and forth, but really proud of the way the guys stood up on the defensive end.

The No. 14 seed Raiders won the Horizon League tournament by erasing a 12-point deficit to beat Detroit Mercy 66-63 in the title game. That came after they put up 105 points in the semifinals. Wright State enters Friday at 23-11 overall and 15-5 in league play, having won eight of its last 10 and 18 of its last 22.

No. 3 seed Virginia took down No. 14 Wright State by the final score of 82-73 in the 2026 NCAA tournament on Friday.

The Wright State Raiders and the Virginia Cavaliers meet Friday in an NCAA Tournament game from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tip-off is set for 1:50 p.m. ET.

Where is Wright State University? Here’s the Dayton-area location, enrollment, NCAA record, top scorers and Virginia matchup.

It's a rough scene when you're named after the fathers of aviation and a school 10 miles away already claimed the nickname "Flyers."