CHARLOTTESVILLE -- When Bruce Springsteen comes to John Paul Jones Arena in another month, he'll be lucky to have an encore like Sean Singletary's.

Virginia fans might have thought they had seen Singletary at his finest when he played his final regular-season home game, but that was mild when compared to his last-minute heroics Monday.

Singletary scored eight points in the final 30 seconds as the Cavaliers rallied for an 80-76 victory over Old Dominion.

"In the end, everybody can have who they've got and I'll take Sean Singletary," UVa coach Dave Leitao said. "He continues to rewrite a story that's already a best seller in the annals of Virginia basketball."

Virginia (17-15) clinched a winning season and reached the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational. The Cavaliers were awarded a home game Wednesday against Bradley.

Old Dominion (18-15) led 75-72 before Singletary banked in a 3-pointer with 22.4 seconds left. Then, as the Monarchs were holding for a last shot, Singletary stripped the ball from Brandon Johnson near midcourt, raced downcourt for a layup and was fouled.

Singletary then converted the free throw to extend UVa's lead to 78-75 with 4.3 seconds remaining.

He finished with a team-high 22 points, matched a career high with 10 assists and did not have a turnover after being called for a charge on Virginia's first offensive series.

The Cavaliers were in a desperate state before Singletary's final 3-pointer. In a game of H-O-R-S-E, it might not have counted if Singletary hadn't called "bank."

"Go back and play the tape back and you'll see that I called it," Singletary said with a wink.

He knew the shot was long as soon as he released it, but he also knew that it was on line and had enough arc to go in off the glass.

"I'd give him the same shot again," Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor said. "He missed it so bad he made it.

"If he'd shot that ball from just about any other angle that poorly, it wouldn't have gone in. He's just fortunate enough, it was straight away. If it had been from the side, it would have been an air ball."

If the 3-pointer was a stroke of luck, the steal was nothing but skill. His victim, Johnson, was the Colonial Athletic Association defensive player of the year and ranks sixth in Division I in steals.

"I was thinking of going to my right hand," Johnson said, "but he played that well. When I decided to cross over, he was ready for it."

It was the third steal of the night for Singletary, who has seldom been more indispensable.

After leading a second-half comeback in which the Cavaliers turned an eight-point halftime deficit into a 57-51 lead, Singletary took a seat with 9:18 left. When he returned with 7:37 left, Old Dominion had pulled into a 59-59 tie.

It was similar to Virginia's previous game, when Singletary picked up his second foul with 4:30 remaining in the first half. Leitao sat him down for the remainder of the half and Richmond responded with an 11-2 run.

On Monday, Singletary picked up his second foul with 15:08 remaining in the half, but Leitao rolled the dice and sent him back to the floor after a short break.

He had little choice because the Monarchs had raced to a 10-0 lead, causing Leitao to call time out after only 2 minutes, 29 seconds.

The Cavaliers quickly made up that deficit but the lead seesawed on a night when Virginia shot 50 percent from the field and Old Dominion shot 50.9. UVa previously had been 0-9 when its opponents had shot 50 percent or better.

"That was one of the more gut-wrenching games I've been involved in for a long time," Leitao said. "I think, a couple times, they probably thought we had them dead to rights. And we thought they had us dead to rights a few times."

John Paul Jones Arena was at less than half-capacity for the second game in a row, but Leitao had no complaints about the crowd of 6,460.

"I could tell no difference between the crowd today and if 15,000 had been in here," Leitao said.