Cavaliers Now

Five Takeaways From UVA Women's Basketball's 67-60 Win at Clemson

Matt Newton

Virginia Athletics

Virginia women's basketball (10-6, 2-2 ACC) earned a massive 67-60 victory on the road at Clemson (10-6, 3-2 ACC) on Thursday night at Littlejohn Coliseum. Let's break down five takeaways from the Cavaliers' impressive win.

Virginia earns its biggest win of the season to date

Coming into this game, Virginia was 0-5 against teams ranked in the top 100 of the NET rankings and 9-1 against everyone else. In need of a resume-building victory, the Cavaliers did just that, earning by far their best win of the season against a Clemson team that is ranked No. 45 in the NET rankings, which makes this UVA's first Quad 1 of the year since it came on the road. Clemson had gotten off to a great start in ACC play, suffering a close loss at NC State and then picking up two solid wins over Cal and Stanford. Now, Virginia has its first marquee win for its postseason resume.

Kymora Johnson delivers outstanding performance

The game turned in the second quarter thanks in large part to an amazing individual effort from Kymora Johnson, who scored 12 points in the second period alone on 5/6 shooting and 2/2 from beyond the arc. That helped the Cavaliers win the quarter 20-10 and take a 35-27 lead into halftime. Later on, Johnson helped ice the game from the free throw line, going 6/6 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. For the game, Johnson finished with a season-high 28 points on 9/19 shooting and 4/7 from beyond the arc to go along with six assists, two rebounds, and two assists while playing all 40 minutes. Kymora Johnson is a budding superstar.

Read Val's Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.

UVA's defense executes its game plan well

Virginia has been developing its 3-2 zone as a way to help even the scales when it comes to defending opposing team's centers. That strategy has come at the cost of sometimes giving up open threes, which is particularly problematic against a team like Clemson, which came in shooting 36.9% from beyond the arc, good for 26th in the country. The Cavaliers gave the Tigers a ton of open looks early on and Clemson made them pay, knocking down five threes in the first quarter, all of them wide-open. But after that, Virginia did a better job scrambling to follow the ball around the perimeter, chasing the Tigers off the three-point line and forcing them to keep the ball moving. Clemson made 11 threes for the game, but on 32 attempts (34.4%), and UVA played good enough defense to come away with the win, a big step in the right direction on that end of the floor.

The Cavaliers were cool in the clutch

This was a three-point game with just under five minutes left in regulation. Virginia made a series of big plays down the stretch to secure the win. Olivia McGhee made a clutch three to extend the UVA lead to eight with three minutes to go. Breona Hurd delivered a big-time chase down block in the final minute of the game to erase a Clemson layup that would have made it a one-possession game. Finally, the Cavaliers were excellent at the foul line, going 9/9 in the fourth quarter, including 6/6 in the final minute of the game. For the game, Virginia went 12/14 (85.7%) from the charity stripe, which is fantastic for a team that shoots 70.8% from the free throw line for the season.

Big-time momentum and confidence boost

After a tough start to ACC play, the Cavaliers have now won two games in a row and have tangible momentum moving forward as they return home to take on No. 14 Duke on Sunday. This team is playing good basketball and if Virginia can keep that up, there could be more big ACC wins on the horizon for Coach Mox's crew.

Up next, Virginia is set to host No. 14 Duke on Sunday at noon at John Paul Jones Arena and the game will be televised on the ACC Network.

More UVA Women's Basketball News & Content

Round Robin: Evaluating UVA Women's Basketball at Halfway Point of Season


The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Finishes Strong vs Wake Forest

Five Takeaways From UVA Women's Basketball's 69-46 Win Over Wake Forest

UVA Women’s Basketball Falls to No. 3 Notre Dame 95-54 | Key Takeaways

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.