Photo courtesy of Virginia Athletics Communications
UVA Women’s Basketball Falls to North Carolina 68-57 in Regular Season Finale
For a senior class that has endured some challenging times in their UVA women's basketball careers, the Cavaliers had an opportunity to end a disappointing regular season with three straight wins.
In the regular season finale, the Virginia women’s basketball team (5-21, 2-16 ACC) came in having won its last two ACC contests and faced No. 18 North Carolina (22-5, 12-5 ACC). Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, they were unable to keep up with the Tar Heels from the tip as UNC dominated in the first quarter and held off the Hoos en route to a 68-57 win over Virginia on Thursday night at John Paul Jones Arena.
The eighteenth ranked team in the country wasted no time showing its strengths, starting off with a 14-2 run. Carlie Littlefield had six early points for the Tar Heels as North Carolina forced six turnovers in the first quarter.
London Clarkson scored six of the Cavaliers’ 11 points in the first quarter, while the Tar Heel guards dominated on offense and helped the team score 30 first quarter points. UNC was 13/20 from the field and led by 19 points after the opening period.
Virginia came out stronger in the second quarter behind Clarkson and Amandine Toi who scored early baskets for the Hoos. McKenna Dale checked in with five points in the quarter and Toi handed out four assists. Alyssa Ustby had eight points as the main offense for North Carolina in the second quarter.
After shooting just 25% from the field in the first quarter, UVA was 8/13 in the second quarter. The Cavaliers had better shot selection in the second quarter as well, shooting only two three-pointers (1/2) after going 1/7 from beyond the arc in the first quarter. Instead, UVA elected to shoot more shots inside with 12 of the 19 points coming from the paint. Despite the improvements, UNC still led 47-30 at halftime.
Alyssa Ustby continued her hot streak with two layups at the start of the second half, both coming off of Tar Heel steals. UNC quickly extended the lead to 53-32.
Virginia bounced back with a 12-5 run to close the third quarter with the help of back-to-back triples from Amandine Toi and Carole Miller and then points from Taylor Valladay and London Clarkson. After three periods, Virginia trailed 58-44.
The comeback continued into the fourth quarter, as a second-chance layup by Mir McLean with five minutes remaining cut the deficit to single digits, 60-51. The Hoos would pull within eight with under a minute left in the game, but ran out of time to complete the comeback.
The Cavaliers outscored the Tar Heels in the second, third, and fourth quarters, but the blowout in the first quarter was too much of a hole to dig out of. In the end, the Tar Heels won 68-57.
Amandine Toi, London Clarkson, and Taylor Valladay finished in double figures with 14, 12, and 11 points respectively for the Cavaliers. Toi added seven assists and Valladay had four, making up 11 of the team’s 13 assists.
Deja Kelly had a game-high 16 points and Alyssa Ustby, Carlie Littlefield, and Kennedy Todd-Williams all reached double figures for the Tar Heels.
Virginia finishes the regular season 5-21 overall and 2-16 in ACC play. UVA is currently projected to be the No. 15 seed in the ACC Tournament, but the Cavaliers can move up to the No. 14 seed if Pittsburgh loses its final game against Florida State on Sunday. Virginia defeated Pittsburgh 74-65 last Sunday.
The ACC Women's Basketball Tournament begins on Wednesday, March 2nd at Greensboro Coliseum.
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