The Virginia men’s basketball team leaned on the familiar blueprint of suffocating defense down the stretch, including steals in the closing seconds from Reece Beekman and Blake Buchanan, to complete a dramatic, 73-70 win against Florida on Friday night in the Naismith Hall of Fame College Series at Spectrum Center.

With the Cavaliers protecting a two-point lead with 12 seconds remaining, Beekman stole the ball from Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. and was fouled driving to the basket. The senior point guard made 1 of 2 foul shots with seven-tenths of a second to play, and the Cavaliers (2-0) breathed a collective sigh of relief when Florida could not release a shot before time expired.

Moments earlier, Buchanan had hedged toward Clayton, forcing an errant pass into the lane that Ryan Dunn deflected. Buchanan collected the loose ball for one of Virginia’s 15 steals, including seven by Dunn, a single-game Virginia record. The win came against the Cavaliers’ first Power Five opponent this season.

“I felt like that just shows how hard we work in practice. We compete with each other. Even when we’re having off days, we still compete. It was kind of us fighting back, and we just stayed with it.”

Virginia shot 45 percent and committed just six turnovers with Beekman and Dante Harris handling the ball. Harris, a transfer from Georgetown, did not commit a turnover in 15 minutes while scoring six points with two assists and two steals. He also was on the court late in the second half with the outcome in the balance.

After a double-digit lead midway through the second half evaporated, Virginia scored five in a row on guard Isaac McKneely’s three-pointer followed by two free throws by Buchanan to break a tie at 57 with 6:16 to play. The Cavaliers also began turning up the defensive energy, forcing Florida during one stretch to shoot 1 of 9.

An 8-3 burst to close the first half gave Virginia a 39-35 lead heading into the locker room. The highlight in that sequence featured Dunn stealing a pass near midcourt and finishing with an uncontested one-handed dunk for a 37-32 lead with 54 seconds to play before intermission. Last season Beekman averaged close to 33 minutes per game, and with the Cavaliers’ added depth in the backcourt, Bennett is aiming to keep his most reliable player fresher before the grind of ACC competition.

Following a sloppy beginning, Virginia settled in defensively midway through the first half by holding the Gators without a point for nearly five minutes. During that time the Cavaliers also claimed their first lead of the game at 16-14 after Buchanan’s two-handed dunk off a pass from Harris.