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The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Knocks off Iowa in Double OT

Virginia is going to the Sweet 16 after defeating Iowa 83 – 75.
Val Prochaska|
On to the Sweet Sixteen!
On to the Sweet Sixteen! | Virginia Athletics

Plus

A win is a win is…  oh heck, I can’t even type that with a straight face.  This is huge!  Virginia, a play-in team to start this tournament, is going to the Sweet 16 as the first play-in team to ever advance this far.  And to do so, the Cavaliers beat an Iowa team, at home no less (more on that later,) that has advanced to the Sweet 16 five times in the last seven years.

Plus

This is what March Madness does for the teams that rise to the moment; it completely flips the script on the narrative of seasons and careers.  To recap, after grabbing their signature win at Louisville (thereby confirming that the Yum! Center really is JPJ West,) the Hoos submitted three underwhelming performances including a limp 63 – 50 defeat to Clemson in the ACC tournament.  Since then, Virginia defeated an equally scrappy Arizona State in what can only be described as a rock fight.  Then a glorious, free wheeling victory over Georgia (also in overtime,) and now, a battle of endurance against Iowa.  Rumor had it that if coach Agugua-Hamilton didn’t win a game, her time at UVa was over.  And I was thinking that a talent as transcendent as Kymora Johnson really ought to transfer out because she deserved a moment like this before she graduated.  And now here we are, the Hoos are one of five ACC teams representing on the Sweet 16.

Plus

Is there anything that Kymora Johnson can’t do?  She played (as have all the Hoos, of course,) three games in five days logging 39, 44 and 50 minutes.  She got in-her-grill face-up defending from Jyah LoVett and Trinity Turner the first two games, and then Iowa threw 6-footer Kylie Feuerbach on her.  Johnson responded with a game-high 28 points. It was a struggle – she was 4/12 from deep and had what must be a career high eight turnovers – but she nevertheless scored eight points in the final overtime period to secure the win.

Minus

Coach Mox usually has Kymora take the in-bounds versus the press.  It’s a standard enough coaching tactic: put the ball in the hands of your best passer.  But it’s the wrong thinking late in the game when the other team is deliberately trying to foul.  Late in the final overtime, Paris Clark got the ball off the in-bounds, only to get fouled.  Twice.  She went to the line and went 2/4.  After Mox made the change to have Clark in-bound the ball, it was Mo who was subsequently fouled.  She canned all four free throws and Virginia walked away with the win.  How Mox didn’t know to make this adjustment two possessions earlier is beyond me.

Plus

This isn’t to disparage Clark at all. Clark, who had scored just 11 points in her first two tourney games, erupted for 20 points on 7/10 shooting, including 3/4 from deep.  Those two missed free throws were about the only blemish on an otherwise superlative performance.  Her defense was astounding and she grabbed seven boards and dished out four assists.  On a night when the offense was relatively static, Clark consistently got into the paint and challenged an imposing Iowa front line.  Clark’s defense is never an issue, but her scoring is all over the chart.  Virginia will need the offensive firepower of this Clark.

Minus

After having the best performance of possibly her career last outing versus Georgia, Sa’Myah Smith had a dud of a game.  She scored just three points after taking only three shots.  Whereas she looked confident against Georgia, shooting easily and in rhythm, she was hesitant and she’d lost all her confidence.  She grabbed 10 boards, but otherwise, it was a relatively anonymous outing for Smith.

Plus

It was a ton of fun watching Adeang Ring, especially on defense.  Playing baseline in the zone suits her.  Her mobility is always a plus, but on this night, she was extremely vocal, quarterbacking the entire defense from her baseline vantage point.  Given Mox’s oft-bewildering rotations late in the season, I worried that Ring wouldn’t know her role anymore.  Not on this night.  She had the best box plus/minus for the game.

Minus

Before last night, Iowa is 32 – 2 at home in the post-Caitlyn Clark era.  Why should they get to play a home game in the NCAA tournament?  Why should any team get to play at home?  As a #2 seed, Iowa had already received their bonus for a fine season: they got to start off with #15 Fairleigh Dickinson.  The Hawkeyes got to sleep in their own beds, go to classes (if that is still a thing,) and keep the same rhythms.  Why the NCAA continues to allow such a blatantly unequitable format is beyond me.

Minus

The second overtime period might have taken over 20 minutes to complete.  (I watched the game on replay, so I can’t don’t know actual clock time.  Work intrudes…)  The culprit was a pair of “unobserved” fouls that had to be video reviewed.  I’m all for protecting the health of the players, and most of these after-the-fact reviews are to look for blows to the head, but enough is enough.  Maybe the reason why these “fouls” are unobserved are because they weren’t fouls.  Nothing happened!  The refs took over this game, and not in a good way.  The two reviews were split, so neither team gained advantage on the scoreboard, but they did help Virginia.  The Hoos were the more gassed team and a pair of five-minute timeouts surely helped them ahead of the final overtime.

Plus

It's been a rocky road back to prominence for the Hoos.  Tina Thompson, who preceded Mox, presided over a dumpster fire that included the team just folding five games into the COVID season.  But throughout it all, a do or die spirit has been baked into Virginia’s DNA.  From Taylor Valladay and Camryn Taylor to Paris Clark and Romi Levy, this team does. not. quit.  Even in disappointing losses to Syracuse and Virginia Tech, the team has battled to the last minute.  Midway through the third quarter, I admit that I thought the season was over.  Coming out of the half, Iowa went on an 18 – 4 run to take a 41 – 34 lead.  Iowa’s Ava Heiden was blitzing the Hoos down the court and for good measure, Hannah Stuelke hit at the third quarter buzzer (one of three times Iowa scored as a horn was sounding.)  Virginia was standing around on offense, largely hoping that Johnson could make some magic.

It looked bleak.

But they play four quarters.  Levy hit a pair mid-range jumpers and Clark connected on back-to-back threes (after going 0/7 from deep in her first two tournament games) and Virginia was down 51 – 52.  Game on.

Only Iowa’s Chazadi Wright hit from deep and Stuelke had a nifty stepthrough and Virginia was in the hole again.  Virginia’s response?

On to overtime.

And the win.

Next Up:  Virginia travels to Sacramento to take on #seed TCU on Saturday, March 28th.  Game time is 7:30 and the game is on ESPN.

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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.

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