Virginia Leads Wire-to-Wire in 77-60 Victory Over Miami
In their season-long search for consistency, the significance of a wire-to-wire victory for these Cavaliers cannot be overstated. Virginia (13-13, 5-10 ACC) got off to a strong start, held off multiple rallies from the visiting Hurricanes, and made several clutch plays late to seal a 77-60 victory over Miami (16-10, 6-9 ACC) on Thursday night at John Paul Jones Arena.
Miami opted for a primarily zone-oriented defense, which is usually a good strategy against a Virginia team that has struggled at times shooting the ball from the perimeter this season. But the Cavaliers have been much-improved shooting the three in the second half of the season and that much was evident from the jump as Paris Clark got UVA on the board with a corner three.
That ended up being one of four three-pointers Virginia would hit in the opening period, as Clark, Kymora Johnson, Jillian Brown, and Alexia Smith hit from downtown. Smith's three came just before the buzzer and gave UVA a 22-15 lead at the end of the first quarter. In addition to the threes, Virginia got eight first-quarter points from Camryn Taylor, who feasted on the inside of the Miami zone. The Hurricanes didn't help their case by turning the ball over five times in the first quarter and UVA scored 10 points off of those takeaways.
Edessa Noyan joined the three-point party early in the second quarter, but the Hurricanes stayed right with the Cavaliers as they diced up UVA's defense in the paint. Virginia's defense tightened up later in the second quarter, though, holding Miami to just two baskets in the last four and a half minutes of the period.
Kymora Johnson hit two more three-pointers, including one with a minute to go to give Virginia a 46-32 lead at halftime. There was a scare for the Cavaliers in the waning seconds of the half, as Johnson drove inside and collided with a Miami player, injuring her ankle and falling to the floor in pain. Johnson was helped off the court and there was uncertainty as to whether she would be available in the second half.
Virginia shot 60% from the field in the second quarter, won the period 24-17, and built a 14-point lead at the halftime break. Johnson had 11 points on three three-pointers and Camryn Taylor led all scorers with 12 points on 5/8 shooting. UVA shot 53.1% from the floor in the first half and made 7/12 threes. Miami outscored UVA 22-8 in the paint, but for once the Cavaliers had the critical advantage from beyond the arc, as Miami was just 2/9 from three at halftime.
To everyone's relief on the UVA bench and in the stands at John Paul Jones Arena, Kymora Johnson was indeed on the floor to start the second half and seemed relatively unencumbered by the ankle injury, hitting a smooth floater to give the Cavaliers their largest lead of the game at 50-32.
Miami turned up the pressure on UVA after that, aggressively pressing Johnson and the other Cavalier ballhandlers as soon as they crossed over half court in an extended 1-3-1 zone. That strategy proved to be effective, as the Hurricanes got Virginia out of a rhythm offensively. UVA went more than four minutes without scoring, turning the ball over four times during that stretch and committing six turnovers in the third quarter.
Miami also went back to what was working earlier in the game on the offensive end, pounding the ball into the paint. Kyla Oldacre was set up for back-to-back easy layups under the basket to spark an 11-0 run for the Hurricanes to get back within seven points at 52-45.
Virginia's drought finally came to an end on a three-pointer from Jillian Brown and then Kymora Johnson drew a mismatch with Oldacre on her and pulled up for a deep three-pointer, her fourth of the game, to push UVA's lead back up to 11 points at 58-47 entering the fourth quarter.
The Hurricanes had one big run left in them and they deployed it right away to start the final frame, scoring the first three buckets of the fourth quarter to get back within five and prompting a timeout from Coach Mox. Virginia answered with some timely baskets, but Miami refused to go away, cutting the deficit down to four and then just three with less than five minutes to go in the game.
A switch flipped for UVA after that, as the Cavaliers delivered some of their best all-around basketball of the season in crunch time, holding the Hurricanes scoreless for the final 4:25 of regulation and closing the game on a 14-0 run, turning what was a tight three-point game into a 17-point runaway by the final buzzer.
"We were able to have a lot of poise especially down stretch when it was a five-point game," said Coach Mox after the game. "Nobody panicked. Everybody stayed together, kept moving the ball, and we were able to open it up and win by a pretty big margin."
Kymora Johnson's steady play was pivotal, as the freshman guard came up with a big-time layup and a three-pointer to push the UVA lead back to eight after Miami had cut it to three. Virginia's defense forced a few crucial Hurricane turnovers down the stretch and hounded Miami into poor shot selection. Taylor converted back-to-back layups plus a foul to essentially put the game out of reach with less than two minutes to play.
Read Val's Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here: The Plus/Minus: Virginia Blows By Miami
"I'm really proud of how we competed for 40 minutes," Coach Mox said. "I think showed a lot of growth, a lot of poise, a lot of execution, out of timeouts, and also just being able to adjust on the fly and things like that."
Camryn Taylor finished with an 18-point, 11-rebound double and also had two blocks and three steals. Kymora Johnson knocked down five threes and finished with 21 points, four assists, four rebounds, and three steals. Alexia Smith had 12 points and eight assists with zero turnovers, offering some key playmaking with backup point guard Yonta Vaughn missing the game. Jillian Brown was the fourth Cavalier in double figures with 10 points.
Virginia made 11 threes on 44.0% shooting and held Miami to 2/16 from beyond the arc. Miami's Shayeann Day-Wilson, one of the best three-point shooters in the ACC, was held to 1/6 on three-pointers in the game. UVA won the rebounding battle 42-37 and scored 21 points off of 13 Miami turnovers.
With the win, UVA surpasses its conference win total from a season ago with five ACC victories on the year. Up next, Virginia heads back out on the road to take on No. 20 Louisville on Sunday at 12pm on The CW.
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