Virginia Women's Basketball Rolls To Opening Win

The Virginia women’s basketball team got its season off to a roaring start on Monday night at the John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers scored their most points in more than a decade with an impressive 104-68 win against American. That’s the program’s most points since 2009-2010 against USC Upstate.

With the win, UVA remained unbeaten in season openers under coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton at 3-0. The Hoos also reached 21-4 in non-conference games during her tenure to date.

“Obviously 104 is a lot of points. I’m really proud of our offensive execution today,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “I thought we played with pace the way we wanted to. We had some lapses on defense that we can work on before our next game, but I thought for the most part, we were locked in. It was a great team effort.”
That offensive execution showed itself in numerous categories. Virginia shot 52.5% from the field and 35.7% from 3-point range as 9 of 10 players that saw minutes scored. The Wahoos dominated near the basket with 62 points in the paint. They also cranked out 35 fastbreak points that included some of their 25 points off turnovers. UVA logged assists on 26 of 42 made baskets and had just 14 turnovers.

As you’d expect with that much offense, multiple players put up strong stat lines. Kymora Johnson poured in 21 points and 9 assists, while Latasha Lattimore added 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots. True freshman Breona Hurd posted 18 points and 6 rebounds in her debut. Olivia McGhee also reached double figures with 12 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists.

UVA’s Taylor Lauterbach tallied 8 points and 13 rebounds, while Paris Clark, Edessa Noyan, and Casey Valenti-Paea chipped in 7 points each. Clark also had 6 assists. Playing in her first college game like Hurd, Payton Dunbar recorded 9 points and 3 assists.

Virginia heads on the road later this week for a tough test at Oklahoma. Tipoff on the SEC Network is set for 9 p.m. on Friday.

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