For Virginia women’s basketball, it was the same old story once again. Missed shot after missed shot resulted in an abominable team shooting percentage of 39 percent. After falling to Washington State Friday, another awful performance on offense doomed the Cavaliers (6-3, 0-0 ACC) Saturday. This time, Virginia lost to Wyoming to finish 1-2 in the Discover Puerto Rico Shootout in San Juan, Puerto Rico. With the Cavaliers struggling to score, the Cowgirls (4-4, 0-0 MWC) claimed a 71-66 win.
In just the first quarter, Virginia had a shooting accuracy of 23.5 percent, which paled in comparison to the Cowgirls’ 57.1 percent. That discrepancy is embarrassing for an ACC team taking on an opponent from the Mountain West Conference.
While the Virginia defense held Wyoming in check initially, it is impossible to win just by playing solid defense. The offense has to step up and score. Without a strong offense themselves, the Cavaliers were left to defend and hope that enough shot attempts would eventually be enough to take the lead.
This type of strategy often leads players to be burnt out and always on their opponent’s side of the court instead of their own. The chance to get on the offense is slim and can even catch players off guard when an opportunity presents itself.
With a quickly-tiring defense, the number of personal fouls that Virginia earned grew — giving the Cowgirls even more chances to hold onto their lead. Junior guard Paris Clark, sophomore forward RyLee Grays and graduate student guard Casey Valenti-Pea each had five personal fouls — forcing Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton to substitute out key players during a tight game.
However, a standout player was making sure that her team did not see a poor first half, nor a rough group performance, as a sign to give up. Sophomore guard Kymora Johnson took to the court to lead by example. She scored 26 points, 20 of which were scored in the second half. Johnson also connected on four three-point shots and was at the free throw more than any other Cavalier — exemplifying a guard that knows how to to fight near the basket.
Another highlight was junior guard Yonta Vaughn. She scored nine of her 11 points in the second half, similar to Johnson. Together, they fought for a strong offensive attack in the hopes that it would be enough to at least tie up the game. Ultimately, the other seven Cavaliers contributed just 29 points in the loss.
Three minutes into the first quarter, Wyoming took a 6-5 lead and never relinquished it. However, Virginia had its chances to steal a win. It never trailed by double digits throughout the game, but just could not get any momentum going from the Cavaliers other than Johnson or Vaughn.
On the other end, the Cowgirls were experiencing that same two-headed offense. Junior guard Malene Pedersen and senior center Allyson Fertig combined for 45 of Wyoming’s 71 points. But the key difference for the Cowgirls was that they got solid outings from others — including senior guard Emily Mellema turning in eight points, six assists and 13 rebounds. Senior guard Tess Barnes also contributed nine points and five rebounds.
Fertig in particular terrorized Virginia. She scored 22 points and snagged eight rebounds. Her matchup was against graduate center Taylor Lauterbach, who was unable to keep up with Fertig. Lauterbach scored just four points and only corralled four rebounds. Her plus-minus rating was a team-worst negative seven points.
Throughout the course of the game, Wyoming’s role players did enough to win. Virginia’s did not. The entire team except for Grays failed to make over 50 percent of their shots. Three-point shooting was especially mediocre — excluding Johnson, Virginia made just three of its 13 attempts.
The Cavaliers’ team shooting accuracy did improve drastically to 66.7 percent in the third quarter and about 44 percent in the final quarter, but that was not enough to overcome their slow start.
The fatigue from three games in three days may have contributed to the slower movement of today’s faceoff, but Wyoming had to do the same. Virginia losing to a mid-major program is a troubling sign.
Looking ahead, fixing this offense is a top priority. Without a bevy of reliable scorers to take advantage of an already-solid defense, the Cavaliers will struggle to both get points on the board and hold their own against higher-level opponents.
Another recurring issue is turnovers — Virginia coughed the ball up 18 times. Six of those were from Johnson. When the Cavaliers are constantly turning the ball over and failing to hit critical shots, they will continue to suffer frustrating losses.
Virginia’s upcoming match against Auburn will be a perfect opportunity to display progress, as the Cavaliers will get a taste of the intensity of the SEC. Virginia will host the Tigers (5-2, 0-0 SEC) at John Paul Jones Arena Thursday at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network, and fans are encouraged to wear white.
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