UVA Women's Basketball Escapes Green Bay for 66-61 Win in Puerto Rico

Matt Newton | 2 Hours Ago

Virginia Athletic

Thanksgiving Day was nearly spoiled for the UVA Women's basketball team, which just barely avoided an upset loss in its first game at the Discover Puerto Rico Shootout. Virginia (6-1) trailed for more than 21 minutes, but managed to grab the lead and hang on for a 66-61 victory over Green Bay (3-3) on Thursday afternoon at Coliseo Guillermo Angulo in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Phoenix had a good game plan for attacking the Cavaliers and executed that plan well. Green Bay was at a severe size advantage against Virginia, with its tallest player in the rotation standing at 6'2" and most of its rotation standing at 6'0" or shorter. So, the Phoenix sat in a zone on defense to try to prevent the Cavaliers from touching the paint and ran ball-screen actions on offense to free up their guards for three-pointers and long drives.

For most of the game, Virginia's size advantage, which led to some easy buckets on high-low passes and some second-chance baskets off of offensive rebounds, was outmatched on the other end of the floor by Green Bay's ability to generate open looks by putting UVA's bigs in ball screens.

The Cavaliers did themselves no favors early on by committing fouls and turnovers. Paris Clark picked up two fouls in the first quarter, Breona Hurd and Taylor Lauterbach were whistled for two fouls in the second quarter, and Kymora Johnson was called for her second foul in the second quarter as well. UVA turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and Green Bay scored 14 points off of those turnovers.

Natalie McNeal scored eight points in the first half and Cassie Schiltz knocked down three three-pointers to lead all scorers with nine points. Virginia got eight points from Kymora Johnson and six from Olivia McGhee and went on a 7-0 run in the second quarter, but led by no more than two points.

The game was tied 12-12 after the first quarter and Green Bay led Virginia 29-26 at halftime.

UVA went back to its high-low action early in the third quarter and had some success, but Green Bay continued to keep Virginia at bay, as Callie Genke splashed a three-pointer to give the Phoenix their largest lead at six points.

Then came a pivotal sequence for the Cavaliers, as Taylor Lauterbach scored through contact plus a foul. She missed her free throw, but UVA proceeded to get multiple offensive rebounds, leading to a Johnson three-pointer. Paris Clark then stole the ball from Green Bay in the back court and scored with a layup, capping a 7-0 Virginia run in less than 15 seconds to put the Hoos in front 43-42 at the end of the third quarter.

Yonta Vaughn missed a three-pointer badly at the end of the third, but bounced back by splashing a three to start the fourth quarter. The Phoenix refused to go down, though, responding with back-to-back three-pointers from Schiltz and Genke to reclaim the lead.

The fourth quarter was slugfest, featuring multiple ties and lead changes, until Breona Hurd scored a layup off of a nice pass from Olivia McGhee and then added a pair of free throws a few possessions later to give Virginia a 62-56 lead with 90 seconds remaining.

Once again, Green Bay refused to go down without a fight as Genke knocked down a three-pointer, Green Bay got a stop, and then Maddy Schreiber got a wide-open look at a game-tying three that Virginia was lucky she missed.

Clark found Lauterbach for a layup in the paint and then Johnson iced the game at the free throw line, as Virginia held on for the 66-61 victory.

Four different Green Bay players scored in double figures, headlined by Callie Genke with 18 points, and the Phoenix converted 10 of their 28 three-point attempts.

Virginia was led by Kymora Johnson, who tallied 17 points, eight rebounds, and two assists. Yonta Vaughn and Breona Hurd joined Johnson in double figures with 12 points apiece. Taylor Lauterbach had a solid game for UVA as well, registering eight points, nine rebounds and three assists.

The Cavaliers shot just 6/21 from three (28.6%), but outscored the Phoenix 30-22 in the paint and 13-2 in transition.

Virginia will play its second of three games at the Discover Puerto Rico Shootout against Washington State on Friday at 4pm ET. The game will be streamed on FloSports.

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