UVA Women's Basketball Crushes Alabama State 85-50 | Key Takeaways

Luke Lamberson | Nov 20, 2024

Virginia Athletic

Virginia women’s basketball moved to 4-1 with an 85-50 win over Alabama State on Wednesday evening at John Paul Jones Arena. Let’s discuss some quick takeaways from this complete performance from the Cavaliers.

Hoos highlight their defensive dominance

If the UVA men’s basketball team giving up less than 20 in a half is a Tony, then the Wahoos put up a Mox in the first quarter, only allowing seven points. With Coach Mox’s aggressive defensive style, the Hoos took control of this game quickly, with six steals in the first quarter. Led by Latasha Lattimore, this smothering defense held Alabama St scoreless for 8:06 in the first half as the Hoos went on a 20-0 run and never looked back. 

Finishing with 16 points off turnovers and holding Alabama St to 24% shooting, the entire rotation looked very comfortable on the defensive side Wednesday. This kind of defense will be critical for the beginning of ACC play as the Hoos will need to be able to rely on key defensive stands to remain competitive against the top teams.

Johnson and Lattimore cannot be stopped

In case you haven’t heard, Mo Johnson is really good at basketball. Putting up yet another All-ACC performance, she scored 22 points on 9 of 11 shooting (including 3/5 from three) with five rebounds and six assists. While she may wish for a few of her four turnovers back, Mo was buckets inside the paint and outside the arc all night.

Latasha Lattimore recorded a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds. While she has played well all season, Lattimore seems to be really settling into the offense in the last couple of games. Although the Oklahoma game was disappointing, these reps should help the senior transfer grow more confident against tougher opponents. It is critical for this team that Lattimore finds a key role on this team as her presence will be crucial later on.

Slow third quarter frustrated Coach Mox

I’ll admit, this is a pretty nit-picky complaint for a game that was never in doubt. However, the Hoos will have plenty to review this week in a sloppy third quarter that saw the them outscored by the Hornets 19-17. With five turnovers and a four minute scoring drought, it seems that the Cavs lost focus out of halftime. However, Kymora Johnson's five points in the last two minutes of the quarter set the tone for a much improved fourth quarter. RyLee Grays’ five fouls in 14 minutes will certainly be another talking point as UVA's front court depth has struggled to stay on the court this season due to foul trouble.

UVA keeps rolling through their non-conference schedule

While this squad may not be playing the toughest schedule so far (excluding Oklahoma), they have taken care of business against teams that allow the Hoos to improve their chemistry on both ends of the court. Good teams win these games comfortably, as Virginia did Wednesday, despite a rough start to the second half. With a few more winnable games on the horizon, UVA must continue to thrive in these games to avoid any punishing losses that will hurt the team's tournament resume in March.

Up next, Virginia remains at home to take on Bethune-Cookman at JPJ on Sunday at 4pm ET on ACC Network.

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