After a 31 hour delay due to the snow storm that rocked seemingly everywhere on the east coast spare Central New York, Syracuse and Virginia got underway at John Paul Jones Arena.
Syracuse started out antithetical in its approach by scoring its first four field goals right at the rim. The team's first three came at the 11:33 mark; Malachi Richardson buried a triple off a Franklin Howard assist which tied the game at 14. Richardson continued to shoot and knocked down three triples in the first half.
Virginia owned the paint and punished Syracuse inside.