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Virginia Women's Basketball Adds Guard Payton Dunbar to 2024 Recruiting Class

Matt Newton

Virginia women's basketball supplemented its 2024 recruiting class with another reclassified 2025 prospect, as guard Payton Dunbar committed to and signed with the Cavaliers on Thursday.
Virginia women's basketball supplemented its 2024 recruiting class with another reclassified 2025 prospect, as guard Payton Dunbar committed to and signed with the Cavaliers on Thursday. / Virginia Athletics

Virginia women's basketball added yet another talented player to its roster for the 2024-2025 season, as Coach Mox announced on Thursday the signing of Payton Dunbar, a 2025 guard recruit who is also reclassifying to the class of 2024 and joining the Cavaliers for next season.

A 5'11" guard from Narrows, Virginia, Dunbar was homeschooled but competed for Jefferson Christian Academy in Ripplemead, Virginia. Dunbar scored 1,348 career points, led her team to a NACA Championship in 2023, and averaged 27 points, four rebounds, three assists, three steals, and one block per game.

Dunbar visited Virginia on June 21st in the midst of visits to Wake Forest, Michigan, and Rutgers. Each of those schools made her top six along with Providence and Virginia Tech and Dunbar ultimately chose the Cavaliers over those contenders.

“I’m thrilled to welcome Payton into our family,” Coach Mox said of Dunbar. “Another homegrown Virginia kid, Payton is an extremely hard worker on and off the court. She is graduating early with a 4.0 GPA and will enroll at UVA in August. She is an amazing person who will enhance our culture and already lives by program’s motto, ‘Grind Now, Shine Later.’ She’s a three-level scorer who will flourish in our uptempo style of play. Wahoo Nation, we have another in-state kid you are going to love.”

Dunbar will join Virginia's incoming freshmen class which includes Breona Hurd and Kamryn Kitchen, who also reclassified from the class of 2025 when she committed to UVA back in June.

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.