Cavaliers Now

The Plus/Minus: UVA Women’s Basketball Holds on Late to Survive Coppin State

Latasha Lattimore’s strong first quarter propelled Virginia to an early lead and timely three-point shooting secured the win late as Virginia defeated Coppin State 74-66.

Val Prochaska

Virginia Athletic

It was a Jekyll and Hyde performance from the Virginia women as they raced out to a 21-point second quarter lead. Coppin State, without getting hot from deep or converting a lot of free throws, got the deficit to one with 4:19 remaining in the fourth frame.  Let’s see how everyone did.

Plus

A win is a win is a win.  The Coppin State Eagles came to the JPJ sporting an 8-5 record, rare for a team playing away most of November and December in buy games against stronger programs.  The Eagles had won their last three, all in overtime, and were not intimidated at all playing in front of 4,300 Virginia fans.  In Angel Jones (19 points) and Laila Lawrence (20 points, 12 rebounds), Coppin State had a wildly entertaining duo.  They almost pulled off the upset.

Plus

Latasha Lattimore has been on a tear the last four games (18 points and almost 10 boards per game) and on this day, she maybe had her best quarter as a Cavalier. Lattimore scored 12 of her team-high 18 points in the first frame, to go along with five rebounds (three offensive) and a lovely three-pointer.  She’s got great lateral movement and is nimble enough to drive from the arc:

Plus

Edessa Noyan set a career high with 16 points on 5/6 shooting overall, 2/3 from deep, and 4/4 from the charity stripe.  Oh, and she had five offensive rebounds.  And she hit a three with a minute remaining to ice the game.

Noyan had a brutal bout with pneumonia, reportedly having to be hospitalized even, so she’s still rounding into form, but she’s a career 36% from deep on a team that doesn’t shoot the three-ball particularly well.

Minus

Coach Agugua-Hamilton’s rotations are all over the place.  Her five starters all played over 30 minutes, which is a first, I think.  For the second time in three games, Taylor Lauterbach got two minutes in the first quarter and then never saw the floor again.  Three games ago Payton Dunbar started.  She played three minutes and hasn’t been seen since.  Yonta Vaughn missed her second straight game and I didn’t see her on the bench.  Casey Valenti-Paea and RyLee Grays have just gotten scrubs minutes the past four games.  Maybe Coach Mox is evolving and naturally playing a 7-person rotation, but this was not her M.O. the past two years at Virginia.

Plus

When Coach Mox debuted her 1 – 2 – 2 zone in desperation against Auburn, Lattimore was very active at the 1 spot.  She’s dropped back more with each passing game so that it is now a 3 – 2 zone, but when Olivia McGhee was deployed up top, it reverted back to the 1 – 2 – 2.  Virginia has the personnel to run this zone, except when Lauterbach is in, which could be why she’s limited playing time the last three games.  It will be interesting to see how ACC teams handle a 6’4” center up top on this zone. 

Minus

Virginia should have won this game going away.  They had a 21-point lead in the second quarter and went into the locker room up 47-29.  But the women came out sluggish in the third quarter which is becoming a worrying trend.  Coppin State came out and simply harder and with more urgency.  The simplest way to measure intensity or urgency or wanting-it-more is to look at rebounds, especially offensive which are less about skill and more about desire.

In the first half, Virginia pummeled Coppin State with 32 rebounds and 19 offensive boards.  Coppin State, by way of comparison had just 19 and 8.  In the second half, the Eagles won the battle of the boards (24 and 9) to just 18 and 5 for the Cavaliers.  After getting just five second-chance points in the first half, they doubled that in the second.  Virginia just stopped playing with the same urgency.

Minus

As the game was knotting up and getting tighter, the Cavaliers resorted by trying to play hero ball.  This team is getting better at running the fast break, but with the game on the line first Kymora Johnson and then Paris Clark tried to go coast-to-coast and going 1 v 2 at the rim.  At least Mo was fouled, but she only converted one of two free throws.  Clark, for her part, actually Eurostepped her way into her second defender.  Clark and Johnson can convert at the rim, but going 1 v 2 is a loser’s move and it’s not going to translate into success in the ACC.

Plus

Timely three-point shooting.  Virginia shoots 30% from deep, which is poor in the women’s game, but not necessarily embarrassing.  Virginia was right at 30% (6/20) when Laila Lawrence’s and-1 brought Coppin State to within one, 64 – 63.  McGhee and Noyan canned threes in the last minute to ensure the win and provide the margin of victory.  The game was on the line, and they hit the big shots for the win.

Minus

That it was ever this close.

In the first half, Coppin State was 3/17 from beyond the arc.  And these were some of the ugliest shots I’ve seen in a while: three airballs, loud clangs off the back of the rim, two bouncing up above and beyond the backboard, the line just all wrong.  Seriously, it looked like I was hoisting threes out there.  And the Cavaliers were up 18 at the half.  But they weren’t ready for the Eagles to go to work in the paint.  If you can touch the paint, you can kick the ball out, and catch-and-shoot threes are the best shot in basketball.  Coppin State still missed a lot of threes, but the ones they hit all felt bigger, and because they looked better, it helped open up the interior.

Virginia was fortunate to pick up the win.

Bonus: Game highlights here.

Next Up:  The Hoos have a week off before traveling to Notre Dame for what will probably be their toughest game of the season.  All the hype for the Fighting Irish is on Hannah Hidalgo and the return of Olivia Miles, but if Sonia Citron is your third-best player, you’ve got quite the team.  The Cavaliers will face off against the Irish on Sunday, December 29th.  Game time is 12 noon and the game will be on the ACC Network.

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Published
Val Prochaska
VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for seven years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.