Entering Thursday’s matchup with California, Virginia was coming off of a high. It earned its first ACC Tournament victory since 2019, won its fourth game in a row and sophomore guard Kymora Johnson had hit 1,000 career points. However, the Cavaliers were walking into the lions’ den in Greensboro, N.C. as the underdog in a match against the Golden Bears (25-7, 13-6 ACC).
California was not going to let up a chance to advance in the ACC Tournament. Its consistent shooting and rebounding could not be matched by the Cavaliers (17-15, 8-11 ACC) — an issue they have had against skilled opponents all season. While Virginia eventually managed to whittle a gap that once exceeded 20-plus points, it was too little too late. The Golden Bears took the 75-58 victory.
The Cavaliers had faced the Golden Bears earlier this season and narrowly lost 76-70. It was expected, then, that this game would be just as close. Especially for a hungry Virginia squad that had not won two games in the ACC Tournament since 1994. A victory against California would have made history.
But just when the Cavaliers needed all hands on deck, tragedy struck. One minute into the second quarter, senior forward Latasha Lattimore jumped up to the hoop but fell, going down with an injury. She laid on the court for multiple minutes.
Lattimore’s injury was so gruesome that she had not yet returned to the bench with a few minutes left in the third quarter. There is no update available at this time, but there is a chance that Lattimore may have played her final minutes of college basketball Thursday.
Without one of its core players there to lock down the key, Virginia was down 16 points by the end of the first half. While they had been in this position before, the Cavaliers knew that this would be different because this was the conference tournament — there was no room for error.
And they had, unfortunately, made some errors. In the first quarter, Virginia managed a measly 31.6 shooting percentage, and its 10 rebounds paled in comparison to the 26 rebounds that the Golden Bears had corralled.
Things just never went according to plan for the Cavaliers. Lattimore was not the only one that had to be helped off the court, as early into the fourth quarter, graduate student guard Casey Valenti-Paea headed to the bench — holding her arm gingerly. Freshman forward Breona Hurd then came back off the bench in Valenti-Paea’s place. And in what seemed like just seconds later, Hurd was the next to be substituted out after she took a nasty elbow to the face.
Yet, despite the difficult circumstances, Virginia never waved a white flag. While the Cavaliers had a slow start in the third quarter and struggled to cut down the 16-point lead, they made an effort to turn the game around with a 10-0 run halfway through the period.
Johnson, leading the charge, also received offensive support from junior guard Paris Clark — as Clark complemented Johnson’s 18 points with 15 points of her own. With 4:17 left in the final quarter, Virginia had managed to cut California’s lead to just 13 points — giving the Cavaliers a solid chance to overcome the Golden Bears or at least go to overtime.
Unfortunately, Lattimore’s absence was likely the missing key to Virginia’s comeback in the second half. While sophomore forward Edessa Noyan stepped up to lock down the defensive side of things and open up second-chance shooting, she struggled against California’s experienced frontcourt.
With less than two minutes left, Virginia was behind by 15 points and was forced to come to terms with the fact that a victory was not in its grasp. Now, the Cavaliers can wait for the possibility of a decent consolation in a lower-level postseason invitational. Past that, a lengthy offseason awaits.
Lattimore will have exhausted her eligibility, and there is clearly more work needed to continue developing this roster. Virginia can only hope that the dawn of a new season is brighter than the disappointing twilight of this one.
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