Virginia Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Momentous Victory Over North Carolina
The night before the game, Sam Brunelle expressed some words of confidence to her coach, predicting that Virginia would come away with the victory. After the game, Coach Mox recalled what the graduate forward and Ruckersville, Virginia native said.
"Coach, we're winning this game tomorrow. We're gonna bounce back," Brunelle told Coach Mox on Saturday.
Brunelle had that confidence despite the fact that the Cavaliers were coming off of a harrowing 56-52 loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday, despite their opponent being a ranked UNC squad that had handed UVA an 81-68 loss two weeks ago in Chapel Hill, and despite the fact that Virginia would be without one of its best players in Camryn Taylor as well as backup point guard Yonta Vaughn.
But Sam Brunelle was right. And she made sure of it.
With a packed and energetic crowd of 5,690 on hand to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UVA women's basketball program, the Cavaliers gave those fans and several alums of the program plenty to cheer about. Thanks in large part to a huge spark provided by Brunelle, who got the start and knocked down four three-pointers after struggling to shoot the three all season, Virginia (10-10, 2-7 ACC) knocked off a ranked opponent for the second Sunday in a row, taking down No. 20 North Carolina (15-6, 6-2 ACC) 81-66 at John Paul Jones Arena.
"First and foremost, to do it in front of that crowd, I just want to say thank you to Wahoo Nation, that was amazing. It was electric in there... and we really fed off of that," Coach Mox said.
The Tar Heels and Cavaliers exchanged punches early in the game, with Lexi Donarksi scoring the game's first basket plus a foul on Kymora Johnson, who immediately responded with a three-pointer after an ankle-breaker move by Paris Clark to set her up in the corner. Johnson got to the rack for a layup, but UNC's Reniya Kelly fired back with a pair of three-pointers. Two free throws from Paris Clark got UVA back within one at 8-7, but then the even slugfest became rather one-sided, as the Tar Heels went on an 11-0 run.
Johnson did her best to keep the Cavaliers in the game, scoring 10 first-quarter points on 4/8 shooting. But that wasn't enough to keep up with the Tar Heels, who shot 58.8% from the floor and knocked down four threes to take a 25-16 lead at the end of the opening period.
Coach Mox burned another timeout early in the second quarter after North Carolina scored two quick baskets to take its largest lead of the game at 29-16, but the timeout also served to get Kymora Johnson back into the game, UVA's only available pure point guard with Vaughn still out with a concussion.
Johnson's return to the floor yielded immediate results, as she pulled up from the top of the key and swished her third three of the game, then assisted on a Sam Brunelle three-pointer on the left wing. Johnson and Brunelle combined again shortly after, perfectly executing a ball screen to set up Brunelle for another three. Brunelle was then robbed of what would've been her third-straight three as Paris Clark was called for a questionable moving screen.
Virginia surged on anyway and the rest of the cast joined in, as Edessa Noyan came up with a huge block that led to an and-one on the other end for Paris Clark. On UNC's next possession, Kymora Johnson stole the ball and took it the other way for a layup, sending the packed crowd at John Paul Jones Arena into a frenzy as Virginia tied the game after trailing by as many as 13.
After a timeout, UNC scored a bucket to end the run, but Cady Pauley answered with a corner three to give the Cavaliers their first lead of the game. Jillian Brown hit a mid-range jumper and Virginia capped the quarter with a defensive stand and the Cavaliers enjoyed deafening applause from the UVA crowd as they walked to the locker room with a 37-34 lead.
Virginia ultimately won the second quarter 21-9, shooting 8/13 from the floor and 4/5 from three and holding UNC to 4/13 from the field in the second period. UVA shot 6/8 from beyond the arc in the first half, with five of those triples coming from Brunelle and Johnson, who had 15 points at halftime.
Johnson picked up where she left off to start the third quarter, heaving an off-balanced three that fell just before the shot-clock expired. London Clark added a reverse layup and-one and Paris Clark made a pair of free throws to give Virginia a nine-point lead.
Johnson had six points in the third quarter and Clarkson had eight, but both players ended up on the bench for extended stretches due to foul trouble, as Johnson exited with three fouls and Clarkson sat with four. Meanwhile, North Carolina started to heat up, shooting 63.6% from the floor in the third to climb back into the game.
Paris Clark and Edessa Noyan scored big buckets late in the third, but Deja Kelly hit a heavily contested jumper just before the buzzer to cut the deficit back down to three points. Virginia and North Carolina tied the third quarter 23-23 and the Cavaliers took a 60-57 lead into the final frame.
After sitting the final four minutes of the third quarter, Kymora Johnson picked up her fourth personal foul just 51 seconds into the fourth, giving the Cavaliers yet another obstacle to try to overcome as they tried to pull out the big-time win. But UVA managed to protect and even extend its lead with a series of clutch shots from the perimeter.
Alexia Smith, who gave Virginia critical minutes running point with Johnson on the bench, found Sam Brunelle on the right wing for a three-pointer thank banked in off the glass. A couple possessions later, Jillian Brown drove inside and kicked out to Paris Clark for another three. On Virginia's next trip down, Brown snagged an offensive rebound and kicked out to Brunelle, who made yet another three-pointer from the top of the key, pushing the Cavalier lead back to nine points.
Just as important as UVA's resurgent perimeter shooting was the team's defensive effort, as North Carolina made just two field goals in the final eight minutes of the game. Just as they did in the second quarter, the Cavaliers held the Tar Heels to just nine points in the fourth quarter on 3/15 shooting.
Johnson returned to the floor and guided Virginia to the finish line, making a few clutch free throws and throwing a long pass down the floor to Paris Clark for the layup that put the game away for good.
"I just couldn't be more proud of our group," said Coach Mox. "This was an emotional win, a great win. So many different people stepped up. We played together as a team. We bought in. We executed the game plan. We were poised, we didn't panic when they went up."
Kymora Johnson had a phenomenal all-around performance, scoring 25 points on 8/12 shooting and 4/5 from three-point range and posting six rebounds, four assists, and three steals. Sam Brunelle was the X-factor, knocking down four of her five three-point attempts and posting 14 points and seven rebounds. Paris Clark also had 14 points and five steals.
"[Sam] has struggled so much with injuries and just trying to fight through and stay positive," Coach Mox said of Brunelle. "And she's just really had a resilient attitude. And so for her to show up big like that... she came out and left it on the floor and hit four threes and sparked us."
Virginia won the rebounding battle 35-30, a significant aspect of the game considering UNC had the size advantage and the Cavaliers were without one of their best rebounders in Camryn Taylor. UVA shot 11/19 from beyond the arc (57.9%) and 48.0% from the floor and held UNC to 42.9% shooting and 37.5% from three.
Reniya Kelly had 20 points to lead the Tar Heels, but Deja Kelly, who had 27 points in North Carolina's win over Virginia a couple of weeks ago, was held to 10 points on 2/13 shooting.
When asked about what the difference was between the outcomes of the first and second matchups with North Carolina, Kymora Johnson had to give some credit to the home court advantage provided by the UVA crowd.
"Obviously, being home, you know, we had almost 6,000 people here today and that was really helpful to hear the crowd get into the game," Johnson said. "But also, we really just wanted to win. It's hard to beat a team twice and so we weren't gonna let them do that."
Brunelle agreed with her freshman teammate and applauded her team's effort as compared to UVA's loss to Pittsburgh on Thursday.
"I feel like we played with a lot more heart this time around compared to our last game. We just fought for 40 minutes." Brunelle said, before also crediting the home crowd. "The home environment we had is probably the best we've had this year."
Up next, Virginia heads back out on the road to take on another ranked opponent as the Cavaliers travel to Blacksburg to take on No. 19 Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash on Thursday at 6pm on the ACC Network.
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