Virginia's Rally Comes Up Just Short in 85-79 Loss to No. 19 Syracuse
With the UVA women's basketball program celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day, honoring legendary former head coach Debbie Ryan at halftime, and hosting a ranked opponent on a Sunday afternoon in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers welcomed in a packed and energetic crowd of 6,619. That crowd, the largest of any game this season, nearly witnessed an epic comeback and the Cavaliers almost erased a 17-point deficit in the second half.
But ultimately, Dyaisha Fair and the No. 19 Syracuse Orange (22-4, 12-3 ACC) proved to be too much as Virginia (12-13, 4-10 ACC) suffered an 85-79 loss on Sunday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.
With many friends and family from her hometown of Louisa in attendance, Olivia McGhee started the game with a big block on Syracuse's first possession of the game, but the rest of the first quarter was all Syracuse. The Orange knocked down two three-pointers and jumped out to an 8-0 lead, predictably resulting in the typical early timeout from Coach Mox, who called time just one minute and 54 seconds into the game.
Virginia started to generate some offense and a Sam Brunelle three made it 14-9 midway through the first quarter, but the Cavaliers still had no answers for the offensive attack of the Orange, who made seven of their first ten shots and build a 24-10 lead by the end of the opening period.
Brunelle knocked down another three-pointer from the top of the key early in the second and then scored a layup off of a nice backdoor pass from Camryn Taylor. The second quarter was a slightly better one for the Cavaliers on both ends of the floor, but while Syracuse superstar Dyaisha Fair had only two points in the opening period, she exploded for 11 in the second quarter and led the Orange to win the quarter 21-18 and take a 45-28 lead into the halftime break.
Both Fair and Georgia Woolley had 13 points in the first half for Syracuse, which shot 56.7% from the floor and 7/12 from downtown. Virginia, meanwhile, was 30.0% from the field in the first half with 10 turnovers.
Staring at a 17-point deficit entering the second half, the Cavaliers did what they have done so many times this season, refusing to quit and willing themselves back into the game. UVA opened the third quarter on a 13-4 run that included two layups from Paris Clark, a three from Kymora Johnson, and a jumper from McGhee that brought the Cavaliers back within eight at the midway point of the period. A big part of Virginia's improved play in the second half was ball security, as the Cavaliers had only two turnovers after halftime after turning the ball over 10 times in the first half.
"When our urgency kicked in and our competitiveness, we looked pretty good in the second half," Coach Mox said after the game. "We just got to put together a 40-minute game."
Virginia got no closer than that in the third, as Kyra Wood scored five straight points for the Orange to keep UVA at bay. A pair of free throws from Camryn Taylor got Virginia back within single digits, but Syracuse ended the quarter on a 6-0 run to restore a 15-point lead at 66-51 entering the final frame.
Though facing another large deficit at 15 points, Virginia continued to battle, at one point putting together a 16-5 run to draw within six points, putting some significant game pressure on the Orange. UVA would have completely overrun Syracuse had it not been for the splendid play of Dyaisha Fair, who at one point scored nine-straight points for the Orange and had 11 points in the fourth quarter alone. Fair hit a heavily-contested mid-range jumper to stop Virginia's run and push the Cuse lead back to eight points with two minutes to go.
When Camryn Taylor scored back-to-back buckets in the paint to pull the Hoos within four with a minute to go, it was Fair again delivering the dagger on another tough jumper despite some great defense from Paris Clark to salt the game away. Syracuse converted from the free throw line in that final minute of regulation to stretch the lead before a three-pointer from Cady Pauley at the buzzer narrowed the final spread to six at 85-79 in favor of Syracuse.
Virginia threw everything it could at Dyaisha Fair, but the First-Team All-ACC selection was unstoppable, scoring 33 points on 13/23 shooting with five threes, four rebounds, and five assists.
"Dyaisha Fair - she's special," Coach Mox said. "We tried a lot of things, run different people at her, face-guard her, hedge her, trap her, and she just kind of had her way and was pretty difficult to guard."
Fair wasn't alone, as Georgia Woolley scored 26 points on four threes and dished out five assists. Syracuse hit 12 threes on 60.0% shooting and was 51.8% from the floor and 15/19 from the free throw line, a level of offensive execution that was just too high for the Cavaliers to overcome.
After that rough first quarter, Virginia rallied to make a game out of it, outscoring Syracuse 23-21 in the third and 28-19 in the fourth to stage what would have been an epic comeback. Camryn Taylor avoided foul trouble and had an excellent game, scoring 20 points on 9/15 shooting with eight rebounds. Kymora Johnson posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 assists and Paris Clark had 16 points, seven rebounds, and four assists before fouling out in the final minute. Sam Brunelle was UVA's fourth player in double figures with 10 points and five assists.
Up next, Virginia remains at home to host Miami on Thursday at 7pm at John Paul Jones Arena.
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