In a tale of two halves, the Virginia women’s basketball team snapped a four-game losing skid with a 73-59 win over Virginia Tech at home Sunday afternoon. The win adds a half-point to the Cavaliers’ total in the Commonwealth Clash. The Cavaliers have also now won 18-straight against the Hokies.
“I’m just excited to get back in the win column,” coach Joanne Boyle said. “I thought we played a really good second half and really finished the game strong to come out with a [win]. I’m really pleased with our effort. I thought we executed well down the stretch. We used the clock, and we got good shots; we got to the free throw line and made our free throws.”
The first half was sloppy, to say the least. After winning the opening tipoff, Virginia opened the scoring with a three-pointer by sophomore guard Breyana Mason in the last ten seconds of the shot clock but Virginia wouldn’t be so lucky in its next few possessions with the shot clock winding down. The Cavaliers turned the ball over three times in its next four possessions before freshman guard Mikayla Venson hit a three-pointer to give Virginia the lead again, 6-5.
“We just didn’t play,” Boyle said about the team’s first few possessions. “We had no chemistry out there. We were just running around. We didn’t have a flow, and I think that lingered around. I think obviously in the second half we did much better.”
Virginia Tech made its first two baskets but missed its next four before making back-to-back threes to take an 11-10 lead. The two teams proceeded to trade turnovers before Virginia lost another three possessions to giveaways. Yet, Virginia Tech could not capitalize — only scoring one bucket in that span to allow Virginia to tie it back up at 13-13 with a three-point play from Mason.
The game would go back and forth until Virginia made three of four buckets and two free throws to take its largest lead of the half, 28-24 with 4:22 remaining.
Virginia Tech countered by ending the half on a 7-0 run to extend its lead to three, 31-28, its largest of the game. The Hokies only made one of their last six buckets in the half but were able to hit four free throws, while the Cavaliers simultaneously turned the ball over three times and missed their last four buckets.
In the half, the two teams combined for a total of 21 turnovers with Virginia contributing 12 of those 21. Tech outrebounded the Cavaliers 17-11 in the first half, the difference coming on the offensive end — Tech had eight offensive rebounds compared to Virginia’s two. Tech was also able to drive to the basket for 14 points in the paint, while Virginia only scored six in the post. Additionally, eight of Virginia Tech’s 10 buckets were assisted while only two of Virginia’s eight buckets were assisted.
In the second half, Virginia only had two turnovers, while outscoring Tech in the paint and outrebounding the Hokies on both the offensive and defensive ends. Each team also had the same number of assists in the second half.
“[The message to us at halftime] was to just keep our energy up,” Venson said. “We made some mistakes, but we couldn’t let that stop us. Play smart, play continuously aggressive, and just push the ball. We still pushed the ball but didn’t force passes that weren’t there, so we just had to stay poised and continue to play our ball.”
In the second half, Virginia senior center Sarah Imovbioh also got her first points of the game after being limited to only nine minutes in the first half due to foul trouble. Imovbioh’s layup at the 18:32 mark started a 7-0 Virginia run as the Cavaliers made three of their next four shots to retake the lead and extend it to five, 38-33.
“I felt that we were moving the ball more in the second half, calming down a little bit and getting into our flow,” junior guard Faith Randolph said. “We hit some good shots and got good ball movement.”
The Cavaliers extended the lead to nine with 7:38 remaining in the game before Virginia Tech made its next five buckets, including two threes and a layup and an-one by senior guard Vanessa Panousis to cut the Virginia lead down to three with 4:07 left in the game. But Virginia answered with three straight layups and made its free throws as Tech missed seven of their last nine shots to close out the game.
“Obviously in the last couple of games, that has happened to us, but I thought we were poised,” Boyle said. “We knew what we were looking for. We didn’t shoot the ball too quickly. We got the ball inside, so I think that all helped us.”
Imovbioh finished with five points in the half in fifteen minutes, while freshman guard Lauren Moses paced the team with 11 second half points and zero fouls in 16 minutes after only playing four minutes in the first half with two fouls.
“It takes pressure off of SI,” Boyle said. “I told her in the locker room that she had one of her best games. She really was complete for us on both ends of the floor tonight.”
Panousis led the Hokies with 17 points, while Venson and Randolph finished with 22 and 17 points respectively to lead the Cavaliers in scoring.
The Cavaliers will return to action Thursday when they face NC State.
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