The Plus/Minus: UVa Women’s Hoops Crushes Morgan State

Plus (I guess…)

A win is a win is a win. You can only play the games in front of you, but this game wasn’t a contest. Virginia jumped out to a 27 – 8 lead at the end of the first quarter as Morgan State made only three shots. This was like Varsity playing a middle-school team and is what is known as a “buy game.” Virginia paid some amount of money, probably in the couple hundred thousand dollar range to Morgan State to come at get pummeled at the JPJ, money that helps fund their entire program. The practice has been going on for decades but I still hate it.

Plus

Kymora Johnson looked in mid-season form from the opening whistle. She scored a game-high 24 points, eleven in the first six minutes, had six rebounds and dropped five assists. ESPN recently listed her as the 15th best collegian in the country and she looked every part of that tonight. She seems poised to take her game to the next level.

Plus

We got our first look at the cartful of transfers that Coach Agugua-Hamilton has brought in this year, and the most intriguing by far, at least from this game, is 6’3” wing Romi Levy. She had a game-high 11 rebounds with six of them (also a game high) of the offensive variety. She’s got a fantastic handle – she could easily play point forward if Johnson is sitting – and her high-low game with Tabitha Amanze looks like it’s been years in the making instead of just the couple of months they’ve been together. This is way too early to make this comparison, this was just Morgan State after all, but I’m going to go there. Levy reminded me a lot of Emily Engstler, formerly of Syracuse and Louisville and now playing in the WNBA: a jack-of-all-trades who reads the game well.

Oh, she also scored her 1000th career point on this bucket:

1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ Career points for Romi Levy 💯#GoHoos🔸⚔️🔹 #GNSL pic.twitter.com/g8OecpbqPf
— Virginia Women's Basketball (@UVAWomensHoops) November 5, 2025

Plus

Virginia pounded Morgan State on the boards, 58 – 27 and the Cavaliers had 23 offensive rebounds. Again, think kids vs grown-ups. The tallest Morgan State player was 6’2”. Virginia has five players 6’3” or taller. And beyond that, Adeang Ring and Amanze are just long with impressive wingspans.

Plus

Virginia had a stellar night at the charity stripe going 15 – 17. You can win a lot of games shooting 88% from the line.

Minus

It didn’t matter on this night, but the women were dreadful from beyond the arc, shooting 7/29, or 24%. (It was even uglier in the first half as the Cavaliers were 2/12.) Johnson, the only proven threat from three, was 3/9. Olivia McGhee was 1/5 and Jillian Brown, Levy, Gabby White, Ring and Breona Hurd combined to miss all eight of their collective attempts. 24% will have you losing most of your ACC games.

Minus

Sa’Myah Smith, the most prized of the transfers, was on crutches and is expected to miss several games. Depending on how fast she reaches peak efficiency once she starts playing, the could be a blessing in disguise since Ring, Amaze and Levy will get more playing time in her absence. Or it could just suck. Stay tuned.

Plus

Paris Clark picked up where she left off last season scoring 18 points (just one point shy of her career high.) Clark was perfect from the free throw line (6/6,) decent from distance (2/5,) had eight boards and three steals. It was vintage Clark.

Minus

Also vintage Clark: grabbing a rebound and trying to emulate Kymora Johnson by going coast-to-coast. Hint: she’s not. Clark gets tunnel vision and usually ends up trying to finish 1 v 2 or 1 v 3 at the rim. Johnson can convert those; Clark can’t. Clark is great at attacking the rim out of the half court, but not on her one v everyone breaks. The past two seasons it has taken Clark well over half the year to learn that she can’t convert those opportunities; here’s hoping she can learn faster this year.

Minus

Virginia got the ball with about 31 seconds left on the game clock and holding a 47-point lead. They could have held the ball, let the shot clock expire and give the ball back to Morgan State for a one-second heave. Which would have meant nothing. And Paris Clark looked like she was going to do that. But according to the announcers, Coach Mox told her to shoot the ball. Clark obeyed and canned a three, thus the 50-point margin of victory. This was absolutely classless. This wasn’t Grant Kersey – the team trainer swimming in a jersey that wasn’t even his own – taking a last shot in his walk-on moment. This was a starter. Running up the score against a badly-beaten opponent. It was tawdry and tacky and the University of Virginia deserves better than what Coach Mox dished up on this night.

Highlights

Up Next: Virginia hosts Bucknell on Sunday, November 9th at 2:00pm. The game will be on ACC Network Extra.