It was a bad start to the week for Virginia basketball as both the men’s and women’s team fell in their respective ACC/SEC Challenge games. While the men fared so poorly that I only looked at their first half, the women’s game was much more entertaining. Let’s take a look with the latest Plus/Minus.
Minus
It was a battle of banged-up teams. Auburn, missing two starters, brought only nine players to JPJ. For Virginia, Paris Clark returned to the injured list, joining Edessa Noyan as unable to perform, and equally only had nine players available. But in DeYona Gaston (23 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals) Auburn had the best player on the court and won after leading the entire way.
Minus
Virginia had eight turnovers in the first quarter. On their first five possessions of the game, the Cavaliers turned it over four times and scored just once. Meanwhile, the Tigers scored on four of their first five possessions, opening up an 8-2 lead that left Virginia, unsuccessfully, challenging the rest of the way. The women cleaned it up, a bit, the rest of the way, but still committed 21 TOs on the night.
Plus
Auburn, which had a 24-17 first quarter lead, opened the second frame on an 11-0 run and threatened to blow up the game.
At about the seven-minute mark, coach Agugua-Hamilton brought out a 1 – 2 – 2 zone and turned the game’s narrative on its head. That fueled an 8-2 run as Virginia got stops on seven straight Auburn possessions.
The 1 – 2 – 2 zone is a great fit for Cavalier personnel. At the top, 6’4” Latasha Lattimore has the mobility and the length to be quite disruptive. In the block, Breona Hurd, Olivia McGhee and RyLee Grays have the size to bang down low, but possess the mobility of wings. With Lattimore up top, it frees Kymora Johnson and Yonta Vaughn (and hopefully Paris Clark) free to hunt the ball. In the fourth quarter, the zone so disrupted Auburn that they only scored three buckets across the final frame. Virginia also brought out their full-court press, and while disruptive in its own right, the women did a nice job transitioning back to into the zone, which is a hard thing to do.
There is also room for improvement as this was obviously unfamiliar to the players. There was a lot of pointing and shoving to get players into their correct positions. This could be a potential game-changer for the Cavaliers.
Plus
The women had their best game from the charity stripe at 16/19. Lattimore, who has been rather poor from the line all season was especially strong down the stretch going 4/4 and contributing to a 7/9 team performance in the fourth quarter. And that was the only facet of the offense that looked good on the night…
Read More: Matt’s game report.
Minus
Virginia made 3/5 from deep to start the game, and then 0/12 the rest of the way. Auburn struggled from deep as well, going 3/11, so neither team covered themselves in glory. Virginia was 19/54 overall and that’s just a tad over 33% which is not going to win you many games. The culprit, once again, is really poor execution on the fast break. If Coach Mox really wants this team to run, she needs to sit them down with some game footage of Wes Unseld, who has to be the least physically gifted big man in the Hall of Fame. What he could do was throw an outlet pass, which is a skill that no one, outside of Yonta Vaughn, on this team possesses.
Minus
When you insist on running with the ball, but lack proper spacing on the wings or the foot speed to get well out if front of the ballhandler, you’re going to have a lot of 1 v 2 and 1 v 3 chances. And those are poor quality takes. The team was 10/24 on layups. Johnson, who did score 22 points, had to take 20 shots to get there. Johnson is a stud, and she absolutely can make the circus finish at the rim. But she’s missing two in the lane for every one she makes. And that’s a formula for losing.
Up Next: ACC play kicks off as Virginia hosts Boston College on Sunday, December 8th. Game time is 2pm and the game is on ACC Network Extra.
Rally Falls Short for UVA Women’s Basketball in 66-57 Loss to Auburn
UVA Women’s Basketball: What We Learned From a 1-2 Trip to Puerto Rico
The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Falls to Washington State
The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Holds off Green Bay
