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

Luke Lamberson | Nov 4, 2024

Virginia Athletic

Virginia women's basketball took care of business in the 2024-2025 season-opener with a 104-68 win against American on Monday night at John Paul Jones Arena. A stress-free season opener with no injuries is always a great start. With one game in the books, let’s look at five quick takeaways from the Cavaliers' victory.

Coach Mox rotated all 10 available players, but the starting lineup was a bit of a surprise

The Cavaliers opened the season with Kymora Johnson, Paris Clark, Breona Hurd, Edessa Noyan, and Taylor Lauterbach. Freshman Payton Dunbar will not be redshirting this year, as she was the first off the bench. Yonta Vaughn was unavailable in the game and Kamryn Kitchen plans to redshirt, but the other available players all played at least 16 minutes. Nine players scored at least seven points as the Hoos spread around the stats in the second half. This is typical for Coach Mox, but there really seemed to be no obvious weaknesses in the rotation, which is a promising sign.

The Wahoos started fast and never looked back

Immediately taking a 13-2 lead, UVA quickly settled into the season, leading 26-12 at the end of the first quarter. After a slow start to the second quarter (an all too common sight from last season), the Hoos immediately took back control with a 17-2 run to end the half. Pick your favorite stat and the Hoos probably dominated it. The Cavs shot 52% from the field, 10/28 from three, and outrebounded American by 17. The defense contributed 10 blocks, nine steals, and scored 35 fast break points. Despite committing 14 turnovers and taking some forced shots throughout the game, this one was never in doubt and allowed the team to shake off some rust.

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

The youth movement is in full effect

Breona Hurd and Mo Johnson completely dominated this game. In her college debut, Bre scored 18 points on 15 shots, including 2/5 from deep in only 25 minutes. Johnson was the game’s leading scorer, tallying 21 points on nine shots, including 3/3 from three and 6/6 from the line. She added nine assists, three rebounds, and a steal in a very efficient 22 minutes. Bre and Mo are both electric talents that started their all-ACC team campaigns well.

In addition to these two, Payton Dunbar was the first off the bench, Olivia McGhee scored 12 (albeit on 1/6 from three), and Edessa Noyan scored seven in a solid 26 minutes. With five contributing freshman and sophomore players, four of whom are from Virginia, Coach Mox has a very solid young core to build on beyond this season.

Newcomers immediately filling gaps from last season

Throughout the 2023-2024 season, the Hoos could not find consistency, mostly due to a lack of size and frontcourt depth. As I discussed in the roster preview, Coach Mox went out and found answers to these problems in the portal. Latasha Lattimore looked very comfortable in the system, scoring 15 points on 12 shots (although the 1/5 from the line left something to be desired). Lattimore moved around the court well and was a frequent fast break threat. Taylor Lauterbach, who was a surprise starter in the game, showed great improvement from last season, looking more consistent and confident with the ball, scoring eight points with 13 rebounds, including nine boards in the first half.

Along with Hurd and Noyan, RyLee Grays rounds out this year’s front court, which looks to be significantly deeper than last season. Hoos fans will remember the difficult outings when the Cavaliers had no answers for Cam Taylor’s foul trouble. This season, Mox will have multiple options at both the forward and center positions, including athletic choices that should serve key roles in ACC matchups against teams like NC State or Notre Dame. 

But let’s see how Friday goes before we overreact

This win today was very solid and scoring 100 on any team is an achievement. But American was picked last in the Patriot League and the next game on UVA’s schedule is a true road game against the No. 10 team in the country. Oklahoma won easily today, led by Sahara Williams and Skylar Vann, who scored 16 and 10 points respectively. This is going to be a difficult game in a road environment, but will serve as a quick test for this young team. If the Hoos can dominate the paint on Friday as much as they did today, my bold NCAA tournament prediction might not be bold enough. Tune in on Friday at 9pm ET on SECN for that primetime matchup between Virginia and No. 10 Oklahoma.

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