Malik Thomas had 13 points and six rebounds as No. 15 Virginia extended its winning streak to six games with a 70-66 nonconference victory over Ohio State on Saturday night in Nashville, Tenn.

The game was part of the inaugural Nashville Hoops Showdown, a neutral-site game designed to boost NCAA Tournament resumes.

The Cavaliers (22-3) got 12 points apiece from Chance Mallory and Sam Lewis. Ugonna Onyenso added eight points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.

Bruce Thornton carried the Buckeyes (16-9) with 28 points. Amare Bynum had 15 points and six rebounds, while Christoph Tilly added 11 points.

Virginia shot 23 more free throws than Ohio State (32-9) and outscored the Buckeyes 22-6 from the line. The Cavaliers also held a 40-26 rebounding edge.

The score was knotted at 37 at the half. Thornton and Bynum led Ohio State with 10 points apiece. All nine of the Cavaliers that entered the game had at least one basket at the midway point with none scoring more than seven points. Virginia’s reserves provided the spark, outscoring the Buckeyes’ bench 21-2 in the opening 20 minutes.

Neither side had more than a four-point advantage in the second half until a Thornton layup gave the Buckeyes a 49-44 lead with 13:47 remaining. Another Thornton layup nudged the lead to six, 59-53, midway through the half.

Virginia then had an 8-0 spurt that included four points from Thomas. Mallory hit a jumper with 4:43 remaining to give the Cavaliers a 63-61 lead.

Both sides came up empty for the next 3:32 until Lewis made a steal to set up a Dallin Hall fast-break layup. Hall then split free throws with 41 seconds left to give Virginia a five-point lead.

Bynum ended the Buckeyes’ scoring drought of over four minutes with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 66-64 with 33 seconds left.

Lewis made one of two free throws before Onyenso blocked a Thornton shot. Lewis then made two more free throws.

Tilly scored inside with six seconds left. A Mallory free throw with 1.8 seconds left clinched Virginia’s win.

–Field Level Media

One of the most competitive matches at the BLAST Slam VI event will get a rematch in Attard, Malta.

But with a lot more on the line this time.

In Saturday’s semifinals, Team Liquid had little trouble with OG, winning 3-0, while Natus Vincere edged Team Yandex 3-2 in a back-and-forth affair to advance to the grand final on Sunday.

BLAST Slam VI is a 12-team Dota 2 event that pays $300,000 to the winner and $1 million overall. The event opened with three days of group play — a round-robin, best-of-1 format in which each team played each other team once. The top two teams in the standings, Natus Vincere and OG, moved on to the semifinals of the playoffs.

The teams finishing third through eighth in the standings advanced to the play-in round — four best-of-3 matches in which the winners advance to the playoffs and the losers were eliminated. The teams finishing ninth through 12th in group play competed in the last-chance playoff, another best-of-3 format where the winners advanced to the play-in round and the losers went home.

All playoff matches are best-of-5. The championship squad will receive $300,000 plus $100,000 in team earnings, while the runner-up will get $150,000 and $50,000 in team earnings.

Back on Feb. 4, Liquid beat Natus Vincere in a round-robin match that lasted 84 minutes.

On Saturday, Liquid took care of OG in 24 minutes on green, 38 minutes on red, and 85 minutes on green. Sweden’s Michael “miCKe” Vu led Liquid with a 30/10/35 kill-death-assist ratio while John “Natsumi-” Vargas of the Philippines posted a 23/12/22 KDA in the loss — including a 17/7/13 in the 84-minute finale.

The other semi was a different story as the teams alternated wins over the first four maps — Yandex won in 34 minutes on green before Natus Vincere won in 24 minutes on red, then Yandex took green in 49 minutes and Natus Vincere answered in red with a 61-minute win. In the final map, the alternating wins ended as Natus Vincere won on green in 40 minutes.

Ukrainian Artem “Niku” Bachkur posted a 33/24/52 KDA and compatriot Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov went for 35/18/33 in the win. Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov of Kazakhstan posted a monster 48/17/40 in the loss.

BLAST Slam VI prize pool

1. $300,000 (plus $100,000 in team earnings)

2. $150,000 (plus $50,000)

3-4. $60,000 (plus $29,000) — OG, Team Yandex

5-6. $35,000 (plus $15,000) — Team Falcons, HEROIC

7-10. $22,500 (plus $6.250) — Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, GamerLegion

11-12. $10,000 (plus $2,500) — REKONIX, MOUZ

–Field Level Media

Solo Ball scored 20 points as sixth-ranked UConn stayed atop the Big East by holding on for a 79-75 victory over Georgetown Saturday night in Storrs, Conn.

The Huskies (24-2, 14-1 Big East) won their second straight game following an 81-72 loss to then-No. 22 St. John’s on Feb. 6 to remain a half-game ahead of the Red Storm, who earned a 10-point win in Providence earlier in the day.

Ball scored 16 in the first half after tallying 24 Wednesday at Butler. The junior guard made 7 of 17 shots and hit five of UConn’s 11 3s on 15 attempts.

Alex Karaban added 13 of his 18 points in the second half, when the Huskies fended off multiple comeback attempts by the Hoyas. Karaban earned his 116th win at UConn, becoming the all-time winningest player in school history.

Silas DeMary Jr. totaled 15 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists to nearly finish with his second triple-double of the season. Braylon Mullins and Eric Reibe contributed 10 apiece as the Huskies survived Tarris Reed Jr. being in foul trouble in the second half.

The Huskies shot 47.2% and won despite shooting 4-of-17 from three in the second half.

KJ Lewis led all scorers with 24 points, including a 4-point play with 24 seconds left to get the Hoyas (13-12, 5-9) within 77-74. Vince Iwuchukwu added 16 and Kayvaun Mulready contributed 15, but Georgetown lost its 12th straight game to UConn.

The Hoyas shot 43.6% and made 12 of 28 3s, including 7 of 13 in the final 20 minutes.

Georgetown forged a 25-25 tie on two free throws by Iwuchukwu with 7:07 left in the first half, but Ball hit two 3-pointers, a layup and a dunk as the Huskies held a 41-33 advantage at halftime.

Karaban and Ball hit 3s for a 58-46 lead with 10:42 left before the Huskies struggled to finish the game from there.

The Hoyas led 72-68 following a contested three by Lewis with 2:34 to go. After a timeout and a pair of missed threes by teammates, DeMary hit two free throws with 1:56 left to extend the lead to six.

Following the 4-point play, Lewis stole Karaban’s inbounds pass with 14 seconds left and Mulready split two free throws with 11 seconds left to make it 77-75.

Karaban clinched the win with two free throws with 10 seconds left followed by a missed 3-pointer by Mulready.

–Field Level Media