Cavaliers Now

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Folds Easily vs FSU

Virginia allowed Florida State, the highest-scoring team in the country, to go over 100 points for the seventh time this season, falling 101-68.

Val Prochaska

Virginia Athletic

Last year in Tallahassee, the Cavaliers knocked out these Seminoles behind 35 points from Kymora Johnson.  If FSU was out for revenge, consider it mission accomplished.  This was an old-fashioned beat-down. 

Minus

The Florida State Seminoles jumped out to an 11 – 0 lead as the Virginia Cavaliers missed their first five shots and committed five turnovers before Olivia McGhee scored 4.5 minutes in.  If the game wasn’t over by that point, it surely was by the end of the first quarter with FSU up 26 – 9.

Minus

It was an ugly shooting night across the board for Virginia.  The Cavs were 3/18 from the floor in the first and 1/5 from deep.  The women recovered, just because no one can shoot that poorly for an entire game, but the numbers are still dismal:  36% from the floor, 21% from deep, and 44% from the charity stripe.  Duke might win with numbers that look like that.  Louisville of a couple of years ago might have won with those percentages, but it could only happen if the defense was airtight.  Let’s just stipulate that it wasn’t.

Minus

Virginia missed a lot of bunnies at the rim, going 19/47 on layups.  That’s just too many misses.  There are only two ways to come back from the hole Virginia dug themselves into:  either get stops or become a lot more efficient on the offensive end.   Well, no one is getting stops vs FSU as they lead the NCAA at over 92 points per game.  19/47 at the rim combined with going 4/19 from beyond the arc is how one finds themselves on the short end of 101 – 68.

Plus

Casey Valenti-Paea had the nicest play on the night.

Valenti-Paea has been getting more minutes lately, double digits in four of the last five games with 17 minutes tonight.  Casey’s a smart defender and her spacing is pretty good (she had three assists,) but she had a rough night shooting.  She was 0/4 at the rim and a couple of her shots were, umm, speculative.  She airballed two scoop shots.

Read More: Matt's Got Five Takeaways

Plus

Paris Clark gave the game her all and she scored a team-high 16 points.  It took her 17 shots to get there but the entire team was poor from the floor.

Minus

Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson and Virginia’s Kymora Johnson are both quick, ball dominant point guards who can finish at the rim.  Both coaches want their teams to push the pace and run but Latson put on a master class on getting into the offensive set quickly and showed how much more Johnson has to learn.  While Johnson can pound the ball at the top of the arc for 4, 6, 10 seconds even, Latson attacks the paint within one or dribbles all the time.  FSU plays with a frenetic urgency in the half court that UVa just cannot match even as I suspect coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton would want to.

Plus

Virginia won the battle of the boards 49 – 42 with a decided advantage on the offensive glass:  21 – 9.  Miss as many shots as the Hoos did and there will be lots of opportunities on the offensive end.  Virginia gave that advantage away, though, losing the turnover battle 18 – 7.   This is a game best forgotten.

Plus

The schedule does get a bit easier here on out.  Virginia has now played the four best teams in the ACC and they have Pitt, Stanford, and SMU, all of whom could miss the ACC tournament next month.  There’s really only one chance to pick up a Quad 1 win – UNC away on the final day of the season – but this team isn’t going to the NCAA Tournament unless they at least make it to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.

Next Up:  Virginia plays Virginia Tech at home on Sunday, February 9th.  Game time is 12 noon and the game is on the ACC Network.  I’ll be in attendance for that game.  The last four games that I have attended with my buddies Mark and Craig, have been wins for the Cavaliers.  Hopefully the Hoos will knock the Hokies down a peg and move closer towards overtaking them in the standings.

More UVA Women's Basketball News & Content

UVA Women's Basketball Falls to No. 22 Florida State 101-68 | Takeaways

UVA Women's Basketball Wins at Syracuse 70-67 | Key Takeaways

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Can’t Close Out Miami

UVA Women's Basketball Falls at Miami 77-74 | Key Takeaways

Evaluating Virginia Women's Basketball's NCAA Tournament Outlook

Published
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 seven 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.