The Plus/Minus: Virginia Stumbles Down the Stretch Against Georgia Tech
Virginia went on the road in the ACC for the first time on Thursday night and suffered a 63-60 loss at Georgia Tech. Val has the Plus/Minus to break down what we saw from the Cavaliers in this one.
Minus
This game was not an advertisement for the women’s game. The teams combined for 21 first half turnovers, they went 36/56 from the free throw line, and for good measure, shot an underwhelming 34% from the floor. It wasn’t for lack of effort, as there were nine lead changes and 11 times the score was tied.
Minus
Either team could have grabbed hold of this game had they converted their free throws. What had been a strength for this Virginia team in the out-of-conference slate, is quickly becoming a weakness in ACC play. After going 12/19 vs NC State (63%), the Cavaliers shot 15 for 23, which is 65%. London Clarkson, who has been money this season from the line, went 3/7, marring an otherwise fine game from her.
Minus
Three point shooting. Camryn Taylor went 1/1 from beyond the arc. And that was it. The rest of the team went 0 for 15. Of those 15, there were three good kickouts and three true corner threes. It didn’t help. Virginia did do a good job running Georgia Tech’s Rusne Augustinaite off the line. The freshman, who is second in three point percentage in the ACC, was just 1/6 from deep. Georgia Tech didn’t cover themselves in glory from three: they were 4/18 on the night.
Minus
Coach Agugua-Hamilton wants this team to run, but it is painful to watch at times. The women forced the ball too many times leading to three charges in the first 13 minutes against NC State. On this night, the Hoos averaged a turnover a minute for the first eight minutes. It’s just poor ball security. On one play, Kymora Johnson got a steal on the sideline. Rather than take a moment to collect herself, she immediately surged forward… and stepped on the line. Ball to Georgia Tech. Paris Clark and Jillian Brown both had steals in traffic mid-court. Both immediately put the ball on the deck to run, in that same traffic, and turned it back over. I get it. When you are the worst team in the ACC at shooting the long ball, you need to find points some other way. But most of Virginia’s TOs seem to smack more of immaturity than aggressiveness.
Plus
Paris Clark is one of the worst offenders on this team on Virginia’s bull-in-the-china-shop fast break, but she is a beast on the boards. Clark scored 13 points, had seven offensive boards (12 overall en route to a double-double), had a block and three steals. The potential is there; she found Clarkson twice in the game when she got in the lane, so she’s not always looking to force it.
Much like Mir McLean (which means this is a compliment,) Clark doesn’t need plays to be run for her. She’s getting her points in the run of play.
Plus
It’s just fun to watch Cam Taylor play. She didn’t have her usual forceful game on the boards, but she still scored a team-high 19 points on 7/12 shooting. This is her typical elegance.
Minus
Over the weekend, the women lost to NC State. That’s OK. The Wolfpack has been the best team in the ACC over the past five years. But this trip to Georgia Tech was supposed to be a measure of how well the women stack up against the mid-table teams. And make no mistake, outside of the Lorela Cubaj years, Tech has been the very definition of middling (17-33 in ACC play.) Virginia won the battle of the boards, dominated in the paint, and cleaned up their turnovers in the second half. But they were undone by poor shooting at the rim, beyond the arc and at the charity stripe. It would have been a sign of improvement to be able to beat a middle of the road ACC team on an off-shooting night. Nope. It’s still going to take a complete game for the women to beat anyone in the ACC, which means the team is not as far along as I thought.
Next Up: Virginia hosts Duke, a team that hasn’t gotten off to as fast a start as they would have hoped. Gametime is set for noon on Sunday, January 7th and the game is on the CW. Yikes. Check your streaming service now.
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