Cavaliers Now

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Drops Heartbreaker to Louisville

Paris Clark played her best game of the season but lousy three-point shooting dooms the Virginia Cavaliers as they fell to the Louisville Cardinals 68 – 65.
Val Prochaska|
Virginia Athletics

After getting blown out of the first quarter, and failing to close ground in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, Virginia stormed back in the fourth to make it a one-possession game.  Let it never be said that these women do not try.  But closing out a game in the fourth quarter is just out of the grasp of these Cavaliers.

Minus

245 Division I schools shoot the three pointer better than Louisville, but Jayda Curry had other ideas as she erupted for 14 first-quarter points on the strength of hitting her first four three-pointers.  Curry had a pair as Louisville opened up an early 13 – 4 lead.

Plus

This was eerily reminiscent of the men surrendering an early 14 – 3 lead to Notre Dame on Saturday.  While the men didn’t have it in them to really do anything about the deficit, these women play harder then the men, and while it took a long while for the women to get going, this was a thrilling game to watch in the fourth quarter.

Minus

Curry went 5/12 from deep; the rest of her teammates went 1/10.  Virginia was even worse as Olivia McGhee made the team’s only three in a collective 1/14 performance.  Curry’s opening quartet of threes was basically the difference, heck the eventual ballgame, as Louisville opened a 44 – 29 halftime lead.

Plus

Paris Clark played her best game of the season scoring a team-high 19 points on 9/14 shooting.  She also chipped in with seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals.  Clark doesn’t have much of a mid-range game, she just excels at getting the ball and driving down the lane in the half-court.

Clark is the best back court defender this side of Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo.  She’s got wonderful hands and good instincts.  After this steal, Louisville would score just six more points the rest of the way.

Minus

Latasha Lattimore picked up two quick fouls and Coach Agugua-Hamilton pulled her, as so many coaches do, for the remainder of the half.  This decision, along with Curry’s first-quarter hot hand, is what cost Virginia the game.  Coaches don’t want their players to pick up that third, or forbid, a fourth foul, early in the game, but when coaches are rigidly hew to this principle, and apply it without thought, it means that Lattimore effectively fouled out of the first half.  Virginia was simply pummeled in the first half, and the chance for a first, signature win fell by the wayside.

Lattimore is not a foul risk.  She fouled out of one game – Auburn – and has largely corrected her silly charges she made early on this season.  She is absolutely the kind of player you can bring to the bench, tell her not to foul any more, and expect that she will comply.  As it was, Lattimore played four minutes in the first half and scored not a point.  Playing 18 minutes in the second half, Lattimore did NOT pick up another foul, and put up 15 points and grabbed five rebounds.  She was unstoppable and she needed to have played more in the first half. 

Minus

On the subject of Coach Mox, after benching Lattimore for the final 16 minutes of the first half, she sat her for the first two minutes of the third quarter.  I obviously don’t know what’s being said in the locker room, but sitting your team’s second-best player seems… punitive?  Lattimore’s fouls weren’t egregious. Her second foul was an ill-advised charge, but as the season has progressed, Lattimore has cleaned up that element in her game.  Maybe Mox felt Lattimore needed that extra motivation, and if that’s the case, Mox successfully pushed the right buttons. 

Minus

Kymora Johnson had perhaps her least effective day, scoring wise.  She did put up 12 points, but it was on 5/12 shooting, 0/3 from deep.  Mo had eight assists, but also six turnovers.  She was also strikingly ineffective on the break.  Three times she tried to go right down the lane and was stuffed by Olivia Cochrane and Co.  Regular readers know I think that this team cannot run the break successfully.  Here’s one of the few times it worked,

and notice that what makes this successful is that McGhee stays wide.  Too often Virginia runners get into the lane and just clog it.  Paris Clark, for as good as she is attacking the rim from the half court, gets tunnel vision on the break.  One time she tried to convert a 1 v 4 in transition.  It did not go well.

Minus

With Lattimore sitting most of the first half, Virginia got pounded on the boards, 43 – 31. It was even worse on the offensive end where Louisville held a 20 – 8 advantage.  Virginia gave up 15 second-chance points.  Louisville grabbed almost half the rebounds on Virginia’s side and that’s a recipe for failure.

Read More: Matt's Takeaways

Plus

This game was seemingly over early in the fourth quarter, except that Virginia didn’t give up.  The Cavaliers dropped a 20 – 6 fourth quarter on a good Louisville team, highlighted by a 16 – 4 run in the middle of the period.  As Virginia was chasing the game, they held Louisville scoreless over the game’s last 3:30.  The charge was a team-wide effort.  Kymora Johnson was playing D like Paris Clark. 

Breona Hurd grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast for the finish. Latasha Lattimore had eight points.  The team forced five turnovers, including a shot-clock violation.  A 17-point deficit was a one possession game and JPJ was jumping.

Minus

40 seconds left, it’s Louisville ball in front of the scorer’s table.  Three Louisville players have taken their position in the front court and Jayda Curry is the only target for the in-bounds.  Paris Clark is on the ball and Kymora Johnson is guarding Curry.  This is completely backward.  Now, Johnson has played better defensively this game, and Curry was her responsibility, but Clark is much better defending in open space.  She is a free safety on the court with great timing and better hands.  And it’s not even close.  Mo should be on the ball and some poor Louisville player should be trying to throw the ball over Clark.  Mox, Mo and Clark have been together for two years now.  How do they not know this?

Minus

If Virginia held Louisville scoreless that last 3:30, well, they also failed to score over the last 3:03 themselves.  19 seconds left and down three, Virginia had the ball and couldn’t get Johnson for the shot.  Lattimore got the ball in the post with 4.5 seconds left, realized she didn’t want to shoot in the paint, and called timeout.  A second diagrammed play failed as Paris Clark fell to the ground in traffic.  For the second game in a row, Virginia’s inability to run the play as designed late in the game doomed the team to a loss.  Virginia’s valiant effort fell just short.

Next Up:  It’s Miami week for Virginia’s two basketball programs.  The men travel to Miami for a game on Wednesday, while the women get their turn in Coral Gables on Thursday, January 30th. Game time is 7:00pm and the game is on ACC Network Extra.

Published | Modified
Val Prochaska
VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for nine years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.

Share on XFollow Jerzy_Walker