The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women Fall to UMBC

Plus

I had said that there is nothing to learn from 45-point victories against over-matched opponents, but there will be lots of teaching that can come from this loss. Virginia fell behind quickly 9 – 2, never led, and only once tied the game at 54 – 54 with 3:13 left in the fourth quarter. A succession of blow-out wins can lead to complacency; there will be no such complacency after this game.

Minus

How does a minnow that had never before defeated a Power 4 program knock off Virginia? By getting hot from deep. UMBC shot 64% (9/14) from beyond the arc. That is catching lightning in a bottle, and there’s no shame in losing to a team raining fire from 3. It didn’t help that many of these looks were wide open as Virginia failed repeatedly to run players off the 3-point line.

Minus

For their part, Virginia contributed to UMBC’s win by laying an egg from three. The Cavaliers were 0/14 and are now shooting 19%, or 12/64, on the season from deep. That’s really, really bad.

Minus

Kymora Johnson had her worst game ever in a Virginia uniform. She made just one basket and scored a career-low four points. She was 1/16 from the floor and 0/9 from deep, two of which were airballs. If she even goes 3/9 then this is a different ball game. I’m not too worried about this loss because these are such outlandish numbers for Johnson. I’m pretty sure she’ll never have a game this awful the rest of her collegiate career.

Plus

Breonna Hurd put on a master class on this night, scoring a career-high 22 points on an ultra-efficient 7/10 from the floor. She ran the floor better than I have seen her before, repeatedly beating UMBC down the court. When she didn’t get the ball, her spacing allowed for easier conversions for Paris Clark, Gabby White and Romi Levy. Continuing her resurgence from the foul line, Hurd was 8/11 and is converting at 80% for this young season. Last year she was a 61% foul shooter, so this is a major upgrade in her game. Eleven attempts is also a career high. Hurd was the team’s best player by far.

Minus

Despite Hurd’s night at the charity stripe, the Hoos shot 67% from the pinstripe. While not awful, good teams shoot a lot better than that.

Plus

Down 35 – 27 at the half, the women came out of the locker room with a full court press and cut the deficit to one point. Paris Clark is a beast of an off-ball, open-court defender and Johnson is a better defender playing full court than she is in the half court. Add into the mix the height that Virginia can bring and it seems a no-brainer to me that the Cavaliers should play more full-court, but it was a nice change of pace and UMBC never really had an answer for it.

Minus

Romi Levy needs to be more assertive shooting the ball. She was 3/5 for six points, along with a game-high nine rebounds, but on at least three occasions, she passed up very good looks. Twice she tried to make unnecessary passes (that ended up being turnovers) and once she fed Johnson for a worse look. She has good height, she’s a good rebounder, she reads the game well. She took 10 shots/game and scored almost 15 points per game her sophomore year at South Florida. I think Virginia will be a much better team if she hunts her shot more than she’s showed this season.

Minus

Coach Agugua-Hamilton’s rotation got tight pretty quickly. Jillian Brown played just five minutes, Adeang Ring got three, Raiane Dos Santos got one, and Olivia McGhee never got off the bench. Caitlin Weimar didn’t really get minutes until Tabitha Amanze fouled out.

Plus

I want to come back to Hurd because she was really solid. Coach Mox told the announcers this afternoon that “the game has really slowed down for Breonna.” That was evident in her play. She was patient. When she got the ball down low, she took her time and let UMBC jump early or overrun her. She’s showing the poise of an upperclassman.

Minus

UMBC had more success around the rim than they should have. Amanze, given that she had 2 – 4 inches on every UMBC player, left her feet far too often, which contributed to her fouling out. On at least three occasions, she and Levy both went for the block leaving the backside of the post wide open. If UMBC can take advantage of this, so can every team in the ACC.

Next Up: Virginia hosts Radford at the JPJ on Sunday, November 16th. Tipoff is 2:00pm and the game is on ACC Network Extra.