Cavaliers Now

The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women's Basketball Pounds Radford

Yonta Vaughn returned to action and sparked the second unit as Virginia cruised past Radford 83-41.

Val Prochaska

Virginia Athletic

The Virginia Cavaliers on UVA Strong Night paid fitting tribute to the memories of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry by dismantling the Radford Highlanders. 

Plus

A win is a win is a win.  After being on the tail-end of a 44-point beatdown from Oklahoma over the weekend, Virginia similarly administered a 42-point shellacking to Radford.  This game was over by the three-minute mark in the first quarter as Kymora Johnson (one) and Yonta Vaughn (two) hit back-to-back-to-back threes to turn an 11-3 lead into a 20-5 margin.

Plus

Yonta Vaughn, who had missed Virginia’s first two games, returned with a vengeance.  It took Vaughn less than two minutes to record her first points of the season as she canned her first two threes, and three of her first four.  Vaughn finished with 14 points, four rebounds, five assists and three steals.  Johnson tagged Vaughn at Media Day as the player who would break out this season, and this game showed why.

Minus

This was an ugly game as the two teams combined for more turnovers (50) than made baskets (46.)  The Highlanders were simply outclassed on the night, but the Cavaliers were plenty sloppy in their own right, giving the ball away on 21 occasions.

Minus

I could probably save this as auto-text, but Virginia simply does not run the fast break very well.  This clip is illustrative:

Paris Clark got the rebound and went the entire court for the bucket.  She converted this time, but because the ball is staying in her hands, she’s left with a difficult 1 v 2 conversion.  She made it here, but 1 v 2 is a loser’s proposition.  Edessa Noyan, Latasha Lattimore and Clark all took down rebounds, went coast-coast for the finish, and committed charges at the Radford basket.  In the first quarter.  That’s just giving the ball away and it killed Virginia against good teams last year.  Lattimore, who would finish with an seven points and 10 rebounds, is very comfortable with the ball in her hands.  But she grabbed rebounds five times in the second half and five times she broke out on her own.  She didn’t try to go to the rim every time, but she still committed turnovers on all five of those plays.

This, on the other hand, is how you fast break.  On both of these examples, Johnson is out ahead of the ball, she drifts wide to beyond the three-point line, and there’s a pass across the half-court line.  A ball in flight moves faster than Vaughn or Clark on the dribble and Mo gets two wide open looks at the basket. 

The point of fast break basketball is to get more easy buckets.  The marker for a successful season is going to be how many of the Virginia’s fast breaks generate easy looks as opposed to 1 v 2 and 1 v3 looks.

Plus

For the past two seasons, free throw shooting has been a core strength of this team.  Clark, Vaughn, Johnson, Noyan and Casey Valenti-Paea were all perfect at their trips to the line.  Overall the team shot 74% against Radford, but having five players perfect from the line is a good sign going forward.

Plus

Breona Hurd had a rough first half.  She was 0/3 from deep and 2/6 overall, and she sat for the entire second quarter, but she rebounded in the second half to finish with 11 points and four rebounds.

Minus

With about five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, and a 30-point lead, coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton brought out the full-court for an extended run.  I have wanted Coach Mox to do this for quite some time – she’s got the wings and she plays her full bench – but pressing late in the game when you’re up 30 points is classless.

Read More: Matt's takeaways

Plus

Earlier in the day Virginia announced that they had come to scholarship agreement with high school senior guard Gabby White, a four star and top 100 player from Chapel Hill.  Coach Mox is one heck of a recruiter.

Game Highlights

Next Up:  Virginia hosts LaSalle on Sunday, November 17th at 2:00pm.  The game is on ACC Network Extra.

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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.