Late Rally Comes Up Short, UVA Women’s Basketball Falls to Richmond, 74-65

The Cavaliers lost to the Spiders for the first time since 2007

Photo courtesy of Virginia Athletics Communications

After the Virginia women’s basketball team picked up its first win in over 600 days last week at Cal-State Fullerton, the Cavaliers were hopeful that they could turn that victory into a turning point for the season as they returned home to host the Cavalier Classic this weekend.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

UVA lost a close 80-70 game to undefeated Rhode Island on Friday and then lost again on Sunday to Richmond 74-65 at John Paul Jones Arena.

Carole Miller started off the game with a three-pointer to give the Hoos the lead on their first possession. Richmond responded by scoring the next nine points and the Spiders led for the rest of the first quarter. Addie Budnik scored eight points in the first quarter to lead Richmond. Budnik finished with 20 points on 8/12 shooting and played all 40 minutes of the game.

Amandine Toi was Budnik’s counterpart on Virginia, also playing all 40 minutes for the Cavaliers and leading UVA with 20 points on 9/15 shooting. Virginia briefly held the lead in the second quarter as a Toi jumper put the Hoos up 24-21, but the Spiders finished the first half on a 19-6 run to take a 38-30 lead into halftime.

Richmond would never relinquish the lead after that.

Virginia managed to stay in the game, mostly behind a strong effort on the offensive glass. The Cavaliers collected 19 offensive rebounds and scored 11 second chance points. However, that advantage was almost entirely offset by UVA’s issues with ball security. The Cavaliers turned the ball over 20 times and Richmond scored 19 points off of those turnovers.

Virginia got as close as 42-36 in the third quarter on a jumper by Camryn Taylor, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds for the Hoos. But, Richmond would rebuild its lead to a ten-point advantage on a three-pointer by Kate Klimkiewicz, who had 17 points and seven rebounds for the Spiders.

Grace Townsend scored 12 of her 19 points in the second half and was a perfect 5/5 from the field after halftime. Townsend made a layup with 8:05 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Spiders their largest lead of the game at 58-46.

It would have been easy for the Hoos to give up at that point, as they had not come very close to pulling themselves even with the Spiders since the first half. But, to their credit, the Cavaliers refused to lay down.

Virginia went on a 12-3 run to cut the deficit to just three points at 61-58 with 4:23 remaining. Camryn Taylor scored six points during the UVA run, including four at the free throw line.

Kaydan Lawson made a free throw to once again get Virginia within three points at 63-60, but Richmond scored eight of the next nine points to reclaim control. Kylee Lewandowski drained a corner three late in the shot clock to put Richmond up 71-63 with 45 seconds left to put the game away.

Richmond defeated Virginia 74-65 and snapped a six-game losing streak against the Cavaliers dating back to 2007.

With the loss, UVA falls to 1-6 on the season. Virginia remains at home to face William & Mary on Thursday at 7pm. 

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