The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Pulls off Win Versus Georgia Tech

Plus

A win is a win is a win, but ye gods, this was ugly. Still, Virginia wins on the road to improve to 5 – 0 in the ACC and the women now have a seven-game win streak.

Plus

Georgia Tech’s Talayah Walker was coming off back-to-back 30-point games in wins against Notre Dame and SMU. She got 21 points because she’s a great at the foul line (11/12 on the night) but the Cavalier defense hounded her into a 4/23 night from the floor. Romi Levey drew the assignment mostly in the first half, but…

Plus

It was Jillian Brown who secured the win for the Cavaliers. With 1:45 left in the game, Walker made a three to bring Georgia Tech within two, 59 – 57. Brown drew Walker for the rest of the game, a fact I noted at that time. I was mentally preparing myself to be writing a Minus segment about how coach Agugua-Hamilton had blown it by not having Paris Clark, the team’s best on-ball defender, on Walker. After a Caitlyn Weimar miss, Walker got the ball – everyone watching knew the ball was going to go to Walker – and she tried to post up Brown. JB stuffed her.

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Kymora Johnson made a pair of free throws and Tech’s Brianna Turnage converted at the rim. With 14 seconds left, Tech called timeout, still down by two, to draw up Walker’s last shot. Walker opted to drive, spurning the three-pointer, and Brown forced her into a very difficult, which she missed. Brown grabbed the rebound and Virginia had the win. Hat’s off to Brown, the MVP of the game.

Minus

This game was not an advertisement for women’s basketball, or for anything for that matter. Through the first six minutes, each team had turned the ball over five times. Virginia had eight in the first quarter, twelve by halftime and would finish with 19. (The Hoos only had 23 made baskets.) The teams combined to shoot 33% from the floor and 25% from three. Tabitha Amanze was 4/15, Weimar was 4/10 and Kymora Johnson was 3/10.

Minus

Crappy free throw shooting is going to bite this team hard one of these games. Virginia was 10/20 at the charity stripe as even Johnson missed a pair, going 4/6. By comparison, Georgia Tech, a team that Virginia dominated pretty much, was 22/26 and in position to win the game on their last possession.

Plus

Virginia is the nation’s leading shot-blocking team, averaging 8.1 blocks per game. Weimar had six on the night as the Cavaliers stuffed Georgia Tech 13 times. Weimar, Amanze, Levy, Clark and Sa’Myah Smith have played a lot of basketball and they know how to use their length to not overcommit. It is tough to score against Virginia in the paint.

Minus

Gabby White has had a couple of rougher games since ACC play has begun. She logged seven minutes, coughed up the ball four times, and committed three fouls. That’s the bad way to stuff the score sheet. I think she knows how she wants to play, but she’s going to have to learn how to bully ACC-caliber competition.

Plus

Adeang Ring had gone 5/10 from deep the past three games, settling nicely into the 3-and-D wing role. Well, the book is out on her. Georgia Tech made a concerted effort to run her off the three-point line. Ring adjusted nicely, especially in the early going, faking the three and driving to the rim from beyond the arc. We hadn’t seen that in her game before. She converted once and earned a pair of free throws the other time.

And here. This is getting tedious.

Minus

Sa’Myah Smith was out due to family emergency. Best wishes to the Smith family.

Plus

While Virginia was an overall +10 in rebounds, 45 – 35, the Cavaliers had a relatively harder time defending their defensive glass: Virginia’s margin was just +2, 19 – 17. Virginia did a better job of turning offensive boards into second-chance points, 14 – 9. That’s five points. Considering that Virginia got crushed at the line, these five points were the difference maker. Any two-point game is pretty much the definition of winning at the margin, this was the margin. Sometimes dogfights make the best wins.

Next Up: Virginia hosts Syracuse this Sunday, January 11th, at 2:00pm. The game will be streamed an ACC Network Extra.