After four losses straight, a victory was not a want — it was a need for Virginia women’s basketball. Fortunately for the Cavaliers (7-5, 0-1 ACC), they earned a sorely-needed victory Tuesday at John Paul Jones Arena against Maryland-Eastern Shore. The Hawks (4-8, 0-0 MEAC) also needed a win tonight, and an early lead in the first half looked like they had it in the bag. But at home, the Cavaliers held on and managed to turn the tide in the second half with an invigorated offense — leading to an 80-64 victory, the first Virginia win since Nov. 28.
Not surprisingly, sophomore guard Kymora Johnson stepped up to the plate as the leading scorer for the Cavaliers. Johnson scored more than 20 points for the seventh time this season so far, coming in at 24 points to seal the deal. She also was a notable contributor off the boards with nine rebounds.
However, another Cavalier was even more impressive. Senior forward Latasha Lattimore blew her opponents out of the water with a strong double-double as the second highest scorer and the highest rebounder for Virginia. Posting 18 points and 15 rebounds, she was unstoppable.
Together, Johnson and Lattimore were able to lock down second-chance shots and invigorate the offensive side for the Cavaliers — an action that has been much-needed for the past few weeks.
As the game started, the first play was slightly surprising. Virginia scoring the first points of the game was not the startling part, though — junior guard Paris Clark was the one to score, starting once again after Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton kept her out for the entire game against Boston College. After several days off, Clark was back. Unfortunately, her plus-minus score of -7 was the worst of any Cavalier that played more than 15 minutes in the game.
Even with Clark’s struggles, prospects of a Virginia victory looked promising at the end of the opening quarter. The Cavaliers had managed to take the lead and were ahead by eight points, an improvement from past games where Virginia could not even lead the game at all.
But by the end of the first half, the score was tied 33-33 — the reason? The Cavaliers had an abysmal shooting percentage of 18.2 percent. Paired with getting outrebounded 24-19, Virginia gave Maryland-Eastern Shore plenty of time and opportunities to catch up — losing the initial momentum the Cavaliers had worked so hard to gain.
As the third period opened up, the game truly took on the appearance of becoming yet another loss for Virginia. The Hawks scored the first four points of the quarter and Lattimore coughed up a pair of turnovers on offense.
However, two Cavaliers turned the quarter around before it got ugly. Johnson, the Charlottesville native, and freshman forward Breona Hurd hit consecutive three-point shots to take back the lead. Johnson also scored 11 of her 24 points in the third quarter, stepping up when it mattered most.
Since the score was still close, Virginia had to vigorously fight — but it was a more energized team than before, making it easy to stay locked in on the victory. By the end of the third quarter, the Cavaliers managed to reclaim their lead from the first quarter and had solidified a gap of nine points — enough to fall into a more comfortable rhythm, but not too comfortable to where they could slack off in the fourth quarter.
Fortunately, Virginia saw the final period as a chance to try and grow the lead. Its shooting accuracy improved to 57.1 percent in the fourth quarter, helping the Cavaliers widen the gap between them and Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Sophomore guard Olivia McGhee aided this endeavor by scoring two of her three three-point shots during the fourth quarter. She had some foul trouble earlier in the game and sat at four personal fouls during the final period, but she kept her plays and movement clean to stay on the court until time ran out.
With a steal by Clark to close out the game, Virginia was able to walk away from John Paul Jones Arena with a win. While the Cavaliers appear to have gotten their rhythm back and are ready for more difficult opponents, it is important to note that the Hawks held a 4-7 record before this matchup, and are also a far cry from fearsome ACC opponents.
Having lost by more than 10 points to VCU, George Mason, Georgia Southern and Marquette, an 80-64 loss is not uncommon to Maryland-Eastern Shore. It will be more important to look at Virginia’s performance against its upcoming opponents instead of the results of this match — such as when it plays No. 3 Notre Dame Dec. 29 or Wake Forest Jan. 2. The true competitors are those in the Cavaliers’ conference. But for now, Virginia can enjoy the sweet victorious end of an awful losing streak.
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