Cavaliers Now

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Hits Century Mark Over American

Kymora Johnson picked up where she left off while Breona Hurd had a splashy debut as Virginia knocked off American 104 – 68.

Val Prochaska

Virginia Athletic

Virginia basketball is finally here as the women kicked off the start of the 2024-2025 season with the opener, for either team, at JPJ hosting the American Eagles.

Plus

Virginia went over 100 points in their opening game as Kymora Johnson lead the way with 21 points (in just 22 minutes.)  Freshman Breona Hurd contributed 18 points, transfer Latasha Lattimore had 15 points and Olivia McGhee had 12.  Pretty much everyone looked good against an out-manned American squad.

Plus

I’m going to reference this ESPN article a lot this season, but ESPN listed the 10 super sophomores expected to do the heavy lifting of keeping women’s hoops front and center of the American imagination in the absence of Caitlin Clark.  Johnson is not in the class, yet, of Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, USC’s JuJu Watkins or South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley, but ESPN did go on to list five “honorable mentions.”  Those included NC State’s Zoe Brooks and Duke’s Oluchi Okananwa.  Really?  I like Zoe Brooks, she’s great, but Mo is much better.  Just like the Boston Celtics got a bump in their quest to repeat by the Team USA snubs of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Johnson should have all the motivation she’ll need to prove the ESPN doubters wrong.

For the night, Mo was a perfect 3/3 from beyond the arc (6/9 overall) and 6/6 from the foul line to go with 9 assists.

She had the highlight of the night with this behind-the-back feed to Hurd in the middle of a 17-2 run to close the second quarter.

Plus

Hurd had a debut for the ages, putting up 18 points on 8/15 shooting including 2/5 from behind the line.  She got the starting nod and stuffed the stat sheet from the get-go, what with seven points, one rebound, one block, one assist, one steal in just seven first-quarter minutes.  Oh, and she finished that fast break above. 

Minus

Edessa Noyan, who by all accounts has been lighting it up in the preseason, scored the team’s first points of the season (something Cam Taylor did each of the past three seasons) and played seven minutes in the first quarter.  And then head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton kept her rooted to the bench pretty much for the rest of the game.

Plus

Miami transfer Latasha Lattimore clanked her first three free throws, but then finished strong down the line with 15 points, eight boards and five blocks.  More impressively, she showed a pretty good handle and twice went coast-to-coast after defensive rebounds.  She showed the same predilection for going 1 v 2 or 1 v 3 at the rim as the team did last year, but with her size, maybe it won’t be a problem.

Minus

American, at this point in the season, is not a good team.  Their rotation was heavily underclass, but they got into the paint anytime they wanted.  Virginia had too much size in the 6’3” Noyan, 6’4” Lattimore and 6’7” Taylor Lauterbach, but American sliced the Virginia defense too easily for my liking.

Plus

Virginia’s ball movement was excellent.  The Cavaliers had assists on 26 of 42 made baskets.  Newcomers Payton Dunbar, Hurd and Lattimore all showed good vision in their Virginia debuts.

Minus

At Media Day, Johnson hinted that the player most likely to break out this season would be Yonta Vaughn.  Unfortunately, Vaughn did not dress out.  She was in concussion protocol last year and missed something like five straight games.  Hopefully Vaughn returns soon.

Plus and Minus

At the 5:13 mark of the first quarter, Coach Mox brought out the full court press.  Virginia only employed it for two possessions (and four total for the game) and then dropped it.  Even with the season-ending loss of Jillian Brown, this team has a lot of wings, Coach Mox will play 10-11 deep every game, and Paris Clark, McGhee and Vaughn are all fine in-bound defenders.  With the pace that Mox wants to play, it seems criminal not to press more.

Plus

104 is a very good number for the Hoos in this early season.  In exhibition play against Barton College, Virginia also scored 104 points. 

Plus

A win is a win is a win.  This game doesn’t count for much.  American gets the money to fund their travel budget for the year and the Hoos got a chance to run at someone else besides themselves.  There’s not much that can be learned from such a game, but the pieces looked nice and this team ought to be able to fulfill Mox’s vision on the court.  The non-conference slate is particularly weak this year, but the women will get a better test on Friday as they travel to No. 10 Oklahoma.  Game time is 9pm and the game will be on the SEC Network.

More UVA Women's Basketball News & Content

UVA Women's Basketball Beats American 104-68 | Key Takeaways

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UVA Women's Basketball Picked to Finish 9th in ACC, Johnson Preseason All-ACC

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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.