Cavaliers Now

Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball vs. UMES

Val’s got the Plus/Minus for UVA’s 76-52 win over UMES in the season opener

Val Prochaska

The Virginia women's basketball team opened the 2023-2024 season with a 76-52 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore on Wednesday night at John Paul Jones Arena. Val's got the Plus/Minus to help break down what we saw from Coach Mox's Cavaliers in their first game of the year. 

Positive

A win is a win is a win. University of Maryland Eastern Shore jumped out to a 6-0 lead as Virginia missed a trio of threes. It took most of the first quarter for the Cavaliers to take the lead and they were up 14-10 at the end of one. Then it became…

Positive

The Kymora Johnson show. “Mo” hit three in a row from deep to break open the game. Yonta Vaughn took over the point guard duties and let Johnson play off ball as all three of her buckets were of the catch and shoot variety. Johnson finished with 15 points and seven rebounds in her first game of what should be a storied career.

Positive

It’s a small sample size, what with the Blue-White scrimmage, last week’s scrimmage with Pitt-Johnstown, and now UMES, but it looks like Vaughn has already made the sophomore leap. While Vaughn had a stinker of a shooting night, she had eight assists – fully half of the team’s total – and played under control. The rest of the team? Not so much.

Negative

The game was ragged and performance on the break and in transition was rough. If Tony Bennett had to review game footage like this, he’d have a coronary. UMES is a very middling MEAC program, yet Virginia turned the ball over 19 times, most of it in transition. Carrying over from last year, the team committed five offensive fouls trying to put the ball on the court and run. Shot selection was not good. At times it looked like Paul Westhead – circa Denver Nuggets – and that is not a good thing.

Positive

Camryn Taylor beat up on the Hawks like she beats up on everybody. She had 22 points and nine rebounds and she went 8 – 9 from the charity stripe. In one two minute stretch in the fourth, she put up nine points. Taylor puts up points in bunches, and when she’s on, there isn’t anyone who can stop her. She had three fouls, but most importantly, she only had one in the first half. Picking up fouls in bunches has been a problem for her, but getting called just once in the first half is progress.

Minus

The first shot of the year last year was a Camryn Taylor three. It missed. The first shot of the year this year was a Taylor three. It also missed. Trust me, you do not want Taylor shooting the long ball. On the night, Virginia was a dismal 8/31 from three. Johnson blitzed three in a row to start the second quarter, got way too confident, and was gunning the rest of the night. Johnson finished 3/10 from deep. Jillian Brown went 1/5 and Cady Pauley was 0 for 3. As was Taylor. Yeah, there’s a lot of kinks to work out.

Minus

Injuries suck. The team was already missing Sam Brunelle, Mir McLean, Kaydan Lawson and Paris Clark. Add to that London Clarkson, who “tweaked something” during warmups and was held out. Chemistry is an elusive concept, but teams with better chemistry are more successful in transition. Hard to build chemistry with that quintet sitting out.

A screenshot of the Virginia women's basketball team's bench, featuring several injured players, during the game against Maryland Eastern Shore at John Paul Jones Arena.
(left to right) Kaydan Lawson, Mir McLean, Kaydan Lawson, Paris Clark, Sam Brunelle - all inactive for the season opener with various injuries / ACC Network Extra

Positive

Edessa Noyan got the start with both Brunelle and Clarkson out. She looked very comfortable hitting both her shots: the team’s first three of the season and then showing some nifty footwork around the basket. She also grabbed six boards and ran well in transition. All in all, it was a very London Clarkson type of performance.

Positive

The star of the night, for me, was Jillian Brown, who played the McLean role tonight. She had a 14-point, 13-board double-double, was perfect from the charity stripe, and had three blocks to boot.

Positive

Free-throw shooting. There was many a game last year when trips to the line were more of an adventure than a sure thing. The women went 20 – 25 from the line. The team was 8 – 8 in the final frame as they successfully closed out the game.

Positive

I love UMES. It’s one of three local schools to me and I have taken classes there. UMES is also the alma mater of Art Shell, the NFL’s first black head coach and a hall of famer, and Clarence Clemons, the “big man” of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band. Fun fact: Shell has given a lot of money to the athletic department, but not for football. Golf. Hit us up on social media (below) if you want to hazard a guess why.

Positive

It’s National Signing Day and this game was just one more thing… Coach Agugua-Hamilton just keeps the hits coming, signing Breona Hurd, a four-star and top 100 prospect from her old stomping grounds of Missouri, today.

Next Up: Virginia hosts Campbell this Sunday, November 12th at 2pm. The game will be carried on the ACC Network.

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Published
Val Prochaska
VAL PROCHASKA

Val graduated from the University of Virginia in the last millennium, back when writing one's senior thesis by hand was still a thing. He is a lifelong fan of the ACC, having chosen the Tobacco Road conference ahead of the Big East. Again, when that was still a thing. Val has covered Virginia men's basketball for seven years, first with HoosPlace and then with StreakingTheLawn, before joining us here at Virginia Cavaliers on SI in August of 2023, continuing to cover UVA men's basketball and also writing about women's soccer and women's basketball.