Virginia women’s basketball hosted Fordham Thursday for the designated Hoo’s Holiday Game — and the team did not disappoint. The Cavaliers (8-3, 0-0 ACC) defeated the Rams (5-7, 0-1 Atlantic 10) 82-56, thanks to a strong start and their best shooting performance of the season so far.
Even though students are out of town for winter break, there were still 4,208 people in attendance for the game. To get everyone in the holiday spirit, Virginia encouraged fans to wear Christmas-themed sweaters to the game.
While Virginia has struggled before to have a fast, strong start against its opponents, that was not a problem in this matchup. The Cavaliers scored the first 18 points of the game after winning the tipoff and made sure Fordham couldn’t get on the board for the first 7:30 of play.
By the end of the first quarter, Virginia was leading 27-7 with a 64.3 field goal shooting percentage. While their offensive play was strong, there was room for improvement in terms of rebounding as Fordham bested Virginia by five in the statistic.
The Cavaliers kept the momentum high during the second quarter, reaching its largest lead of the first half midway through the period when a three-pointer made by sophomore guard Cady Pauley pushed the score to 45-17. Pauley was not the only one hitting from beyond the arc though, as freshman guard Kymora Johnson made two made three-pointers in the second quarter alone.
By the end of the first half, Virginia was leading 50-25 and also led in rebounds and turnovers in the second quarter — easily making adjustments to what they initially lacked at the start.
When play resumed after halftime, both teams went to the free throw line after exchanging fouls. Even though they were going into the second half with a 25-point lead, the Cavaliers continued to put pressure on the Rams — a good sign that they know not to slow down just because they are ahead.
Virginia went on to score 12 consecutive points in the third quarter and gained both its largest lead of the game and of the season at 64-26, a 38-point lead. However, Fordham adjusted its defense to put more pressure on the Cavaliers and slow their run through a full-court press — allowing it to score eight straight points of its own.
Sophomore guard Paris Clark and fifth year forward Camryn Taylor were key players in the third quarter, with Clark scoring six points and Taylor pulling down five of her eight total rebounds and scoring four points as well. Despite the Rams’ run, the Cavaliers still held a dominant 66-34 lead after three.
In the final period, Fordham started strong and scored the first 10 points, but the score gap between the two teams was still too large to catch up to. Johnson scored back-to-back layups to disrupt the Rams’ best run of the game and also later made a pair of three-pointers — totaling Virginia’s three-pointer number to 12 and almost tying the record at John Paul Jones Arena.
Although Virginia’s stats had improved during the matchup, Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton was more impressed with their cohesiveness as a team.
“I’m really proud of our team. I thought we responded in every way we needed to.” Agugua-Hamilton said. “There were so many great things about this game and a lot of people were … just talking about stats. But what I was most proud about it was our synergy, our camaraderie, our togetherness … pushing through adversity and just pushing through when things didn’t go our way or whatever, just staying together. I thought that we had tremendous growth in that area.”
So far, the Cavaliers have improved to 19-3 against non-conference opponents under Coach Agugua-Hamilton. This game marked her 97th career win as head coach, so win No. 100 will likely come soon on the schedule.
The amount of three-pointers made during the game was not the only impressive feat that Virginia achieved. It recorded season highs in both field goal shooting percentage and three-point shooting percentage — at 53.4 and 54.5 percent, respectively.
Individually, Johnson scored a season-high of 26 points against Fordham on 10-of-13 shooting — including 6-for-7 from the three-point line. Her points tied for the most by a Cavalier in a single game this season, putting her on-level with Taylor for the season record.
After a strong end to non-conference play, Virginia will return to John Paul Jones Arena Dec. 31 to open ACC play in a game against No. 3 NC State (12-0, 0-0 ACC). The Wolfpack recently defeated Old Dominion 87-50 Wednesday evening and will be a tough team to play. However, if Virginia continues to perform like they did against Fordham, it will make for an intense yet close matchup.
The game against NC State can be watched on the ACC Network, and tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m.
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