UVA Women's Basketball Wins at Syracuse 70-67 | Key Takeaways

Matt Newton | Feb 2, 2025

Virginia Athletics

Virginia women's basketball (12-11, 4-7 ACC) snapped a four-game losing streak with a come-from-behind 70-67 victory at Syracuse (8-13, 2-8 ACC) on Sunday afternoon at JMA Wireless Dome. Here are a few takeaways from UVA's comeback win.

Virginia finally closes strong

The Cavaliers have struggled mightily to finish games this season and in particular during this losing streak. On many occasions, Virginia has put together a big run in the fourth quarter to make it a one-possession game with a few minutes left in regulation, only to crumble on both ends of the floor in those last couple of minutes to let the game slip away. A similar situation unfolded on Sunday at Syracuse, as Virginia rallied from down 14 points to tie the game with around seven minutes to go, but then proceeded to go scoreless for the next three and a half minutes. This time, however, the Cavaliers pulled themselves together and played great basketball down the stretch, ultimately winning the fourth quarter 18-9 and securing an important road ACC win.

Latasha Lattimore delivers another outstanding performance

For the second-straight game, Latasha Lattimore set a new career-high in scoring. After going for 25 points last time out at Syracuse, Lattimore improved that mark by one and dropped 26 points on 12/24 shooting to go along with six rebounds, two assists, and three big blocks. 16 of those 26 points came in the second half and Lattimore scored 10 points in the fourth quarter alone as the Orange had no answer for her in the paint. Lattimore has scored in double figures in each of her last nine games going back to the end of 2024 and now has five games with 20+ points this season.

Kymora Johnson cool in the clutch

Johnson had an efficient night with 17 points on 8/13 shooting and 1/2 from beyond the arc. We'd still like to see her hunting her own shot some more and taking many more three-point attempts than that, but it's hard to argue with the outcome of the game. Johnson was her best late in the game, as she had four of her eight assists in the fourth quarter and scored or assisted on six of Virginia's eight made field goals in that final period. With UVA leading by three points with two and a half minutes to go, Johnson stole the ball from Georgia Woolley and took it the distance for a key layup. She then assisted on a Latasha Lattimore layup that put Virginia ahead by five with 90 seconds left and that proved to be enough for the Hoos to win.

Coach Mox beats her mentor

Virginia-Syracuse is a special matchup for these two women's basketball programs and their head coaches. UVA head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton played for Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack at Hofstra in the early 2000s and then reunited at Indiana, with Agugua-Hamilton serving as an assistant for Legette-Jack for two seasons. Agugua-Hamilton was announced as the head coach at Virginia the same week that Legette-Jack became the head coach at Syracuse in March of 2022. The Orange have gotten the better of the Cavaliers since then, but Coach Mox finally beat her old head coach and mentor for the first time on Sunday. It was also the first time the Cavaliers have beaten the Orange at Syracuse since 1985.

An important win for Virginia's postseason hopes

UVA's four-game losing streak significantly reduced the team's hopes of earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers aren't completely out of it yet, but they'll have to be pretty close to perfect the rest of the way through the end of the regular season and then go on a run in the ACC Tournament. But since the league did not change its tournament structure when it expanded to add Cal, Stanford, and SMU, even participating in the ACC Tournament is not guaranteed. Virginia's fourth ACC win of the season at Syracuse gives the Hoos some breathing room in the conference standings and now perhaps they can begin to string some wins together to rebuild that postseason resume.

Up next, Virginia returns home for its next two games, beginning with a Thursday night matchup against Florida State at 7pm on ACC Network Extra.

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