The Virginia women’s basketball team experienced its first defeat of the season when it played No. 25 Oklahoma Sunday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers (3-1, 0-0 ACC) managed to trim down the point difference after a hot start from the visiting team, but it was not enough to overcome the Sooners (5-0, 0-0 Big 12), who pulled away for an 82-67 victory.
There were 4,198 in attendance for the home game Sunday excited to watch Virginia face Oklahoma for the first time ever for women’s basketball. The game started off with Oklahoma’s junior guard Payton Verhulst winning the jump ball, and senior guard Lexy Keys making a three-pointer less than 30 seconds into the first quarter.
Throughout the first quarter, the Cavaliers continued to make shots on goal, but many were not successful, as they had only a 33 field goal percentage and made none of their eight attempted three-pointers. They managed to initially keep up with the Sooners and be tied 7-7, until Oklahoma broke away to score 11 straight points.
Graduate student forward Sam Brunelle ended Oklahoma’s run with a layup, kickstarting a 9-1 run for Virginia. Freshman guard Olivia McGhee contributed to the run with a couple of fast break layups. The Cavaliers closed the Sooners’ lead to be 21-18 right before the end of the first quarter, but Oklahoma managed to convert an and-one with six seconds left — making the score at the end of the opening quarter 24-18.
The Sooners continued to grow their lead and outscored the Cavaliers in the second quarter 20-9. Part of this was due to a 10-point run with 2:47 left on the clock before halftime. The nine points for Virginia came from two players — senior guard Kaydan Lawson, making her season debut, scored five of her six points, while Brunelle scored the other four.
Coming back from halftime, the third quarter ended up being a strong period for Virginia, holding Oklahoma to make only five baskets and outscoring it 21-13. Graduate student forward London Clarkson scored four of her five free throws and eight points overall for the Cavaliers. McGhee and fifth-year forward Camryn Taylor each scored six points as well.
They continued this energy into the beginning of the fourth quarter, where the Cavaliers scored seven of the first 10 points, cutting Oklahoma’s lead down to only five points. Freshman guard Kymora Johnson recorded six of her nine points in the final quarter — leading the team that quarter. After outscoring the Sooners in the beginning of the final quarter, however, the Cavaliers were not able to close the gap any further in the remaining 7:46 on the clock.
This was the first ranked team that Virginia has faced so far in the season, and this was also the first non-conference loss it received under Head Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton.
Throughout the game, the Cavaliers struggled to be successful on their three-pointer attempts, making only one of their 23 attempts.
“We struggled to shoot from the three, which is uncharacteristic,” Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “We shoot it well in practice and we’re just waiting for that to click under the lights. I didn’t like how many three’s we were taking but I thought some of the ones that we did take could have gone in.”
Although they lost, a few of the Cavaliers still had impressive performances. Taylor scored a team-high of 17 points, along with having six rebounds and two steals. McGhee scored a personal season-high of 14 points and pulled down five rebounds. Clarkson also scored in the double figures with 13 points and three steals.
The team’s defense was also strong, forcing 21 Oklahoma turnovers throughout the game. In just the second half alone, the Cavaliers out rebounded the Sooners 12-4 on the offensive side of the game. However, Oklahoma simply performed better than the Cavaliers on offense, and it is incredibly difficult to win a game when shooting 4 percent from beyond the arc.
“Credit to Oklahoma, they played a great game, they played tough, I thought they played really well on both sides of the ball,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “It’s great to play teams like this early…We’re better than what we showed tonight, but at the same time, that’s a top-25 team. We’re not there yet, [but] we will be.”
Looking forward, Virginia will continue to face strong opponents that can help them identify their weaknesses and areas for improvement as a team. This was its first significant challenger — as it beat its first all opponents by double digits — and the season has just recently started.
The Cavaliers will next compete in the annual Cayman Islands Classic event at Grand Cayman — facing Tulane Friday at 11:00 a.m. and reigning national champion LSU Saturday at 5:00 p.m. These are the Cavaliers’ first away games of the season that can be watched on FloHoops or listened to on WINA, at 98.9FM/1070AM.
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