Five Takeaways From UVA Women's Basketball's 60-55 Loss to Duke

UVA women’s basketball dropped a heartbreaker to No. 14 Duke, falling 60-55 after leading for the entirety of the first three quarters. Coming in as large underdogs, Coach Mox’s squad played a good game, but they unfortunately fell short in the fourth quarter. Let’s look at some takeaways.

The Hoos defense was smothering

The game started slow, with the teams combining for only 20 points in the first quarter. Duke really had no answers for UVA’s zone, especially with Olivia McGhee playing at the top of the key. The Wahoos finished with 10 blocks, including five in the first quarter, establishing their physicality early. These weren’t just tipped shots either, Lattimore and Hurd both had highlight reel rejections in the opening frame.

Although Duke heated up in the second half, Virginia’s defense gave them a great chance to win on Sunday. The physicality and hustle that UVA had lacked in their previous ranked matchups this season was on full display against the Blue Devils.

UVA put together their best half of the season in the first two quarters

In addition to their elite defensive performance, the Wahoos were efficient in the first half on the offensive side as well, particularly in the second quarter. The Hoos led 29-20, shooting 43% from the field and 4/10 from deep. Additionally, after a sloppy start, the Cavaliers were controlling the basketball and frankly UVA simply looked like the better team. Olivia McGhee and Latasha Lattimore both had eight points at the half with Mo Johnson contributing seven and three assists all while holding Reigan Richardson to zero first half points.

Despite coming into the game as 19 point underdogs, the Hoos were playing at Duke’s level and giving them more than they could handle early. Duke definitely was missing some open shots, particularly the baseline three (a weakness in UVA’s 3-2 zone), but they seemed out of sorts the entire half. But unfortunately...

Rebounding and turnovers plague the Cavaliers once again

This has been the most consistent takeaway this season and it cost the Wahoos the game. Going into their game Sunday, Duke forced 26+ turnovers in their three previous games. While the Cavaliers only committed 17, many of them were in quick succession, especially in the fourth quarter as I will discuss below. Mo finished with five turnovers, including a couple head scratchers that UVA fans are not used to seeing.

Perhaps an even bigger issue was Duke’s offensive rebounding. Duke set a season high with 22 offensive rebounds. Although the Hoos only allowed seven second chance points, Duke was able to control the second half because they simply had so many extra offensive opportunities. The Blue Devils took 15 more shots than UVA. It is going to be very difficult for the Hoos to win games when they are allowing teams this many additional sets.

Read Val's Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.

Virginia runs out of gas in the fourth quarter

I’m not sure whether to blame it on tired legs, inexperience, or something else, but UVA fell apart in the fourth quarter against Duke’s full court pressure. Duke took their first lead of the game with nine minutes left to play off of a very bad UVA turnover in the back court. Six fourth quarter turnovers, nearly all of them in the back court, allowed Duke to take a 57-50 insurmountable lead off an 11-0 run over five minutes of scoreless basketball for the Cavaliers. UVA's starters all played 29+ minutes in this one and they looked a step slow as Duke went on their run.

I want to highlight a string of possessions during this run that showcase what went wrong: McGhee turnover, Duke layup, UVA miss, Duke offensive rebound (x3), Duke three, Lattimore turnover, Duke layup. In just three UVA possessions, UVA gave up seven points off of bad turnovers and a lack of rebounding and it lost them the game.

For the first time all season, UVA looked like an NCAA tournament team

While this will be a difficult loss for the Cavaliers as they absolutely could have won this game, this showing should encourage Coach Mox about the remainder of the season. Duke is a great basketball team and is ranked #10 in the NET rankings. Despite missing out on a high Quad 1 win, UVA lost their previous two ranked matchups by 85 combined points, so this was a significant improvement. Coming off two unranked wins, including a Quad 1 at Clemson, and then a close ranked loss, UVA is starting to show better form throughout the middle of the season. Virginia travels to Blacksburg to take on the Hokies on Thursday before facing No. 21 NC State and No. 13 Georgia Tech. The Hoos must go 1-2, but a winning record through these three games would allow them to re-enter the NCAA tournament conversation.

UVA will be back in action on Thursday January 16th at 6pm as they take on Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on ACC Network Extra.

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