It had been more than two weeks since the Virginia women’s basketball team played a game. To say the Hoos couldn’t wait to see someone else on the court might be an understatement. They harnessed that eagerness with a fast start Thursday night that propelled the way to a 81-59 victory at the John Paul Jones Arena.
That performance in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) delivered the first postseason win of the Amaka Agugua-Hamilton era, which doubled as the program’s first postseason win since 2018. It also guaranteed that the Hoos will not have a losing record as they improved to 16-15 for the season.
For Charlottesville area natives Sam Brunelle and Kymora Johnson, it also gave a tangible result for their decisions to play for hometown UVA as Coach Mox tries to rejuvenate the program.
“When I came on my visit almost two years ago now, a lot of what I was talking about with Coach Mox was that I believed in her vision and I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect right off the bat,” Brunelle said. “We were rebuilding a lot, but I wanted to be part of that foundation that was kickstarting that rebuild. … That I was part of that foundation, but also that I was a great teammate and a great leader, if I can be remembered as that then I think I did my job at the end of the day.”
“Postseason is exciting,” Johnson said. “I wanted it since I got here, I wanted to have some sort of postseason knowing that this program hadn’t been there in a couple of years. Trying to bring it back to this point is definitely something I wanted to achieve this year so I’m glad we’re here and I hope to keep moving forward.”
Brunelle and Johnson played key roles in the Cavaliers’ fast start. Virginia jumped out to a 7-0 lead just 1:02 into the action as it made its first three shots. Brunelle opened the scoring with a 3-pointer on the left wing 8 seconds after tipoff and then followed that up with an assist to Camryn Taylor on the next possession. Moments later, Johnson pulled up for a short jumper.
Both players went on to finish in double digits. Brunelle posted 11 points with 2 blocked shots, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Johnson added 10 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal.
Getting out of the gates quickly had been a talking point for the Wahoos during their two-week break between games.
“That was good. I mean, we punched first,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “We’ve been talking about that in practice a lot. I loved how we just right from the beginning, we went out 7-0 or something like that. We’ve gotta do that. Once we do that, we get our energy going, we start to get in the flow of the game, and also you take the other team’s confidence a little bit. That was a point of emphasis, a big point of emphasis, because we know we’ve had some slow starts this year so we had some growth there.”
The early lead didn’t stick, though. High Point responded 10-2 run to take what turned out to be its only lead of the game at 10-9. Bukky Akinsola fueled the majority of that burst with two layups, a free throw, and a 3-pointer in the first 3:30 of the game. The triple gave the Panthers that 1-point edge at the 6:34 mark of the first quarter. Akinsola ended up with a game-high 21 points, 17 of which came before halftime, and 5 assists.
That lead, however, proved short-lived. One possession in fact. On the next trip down the floor, Taylor answered Akinsola’s trey with a 3-pointer of her own that pushed UVA back into the lead for good. The advantage grew slowly throughout the remainder of the quarter and by the time Alexia Smith rattled off 6 points in the final 3 minutes of the frame, Virginia led 26-18. Smith recorded 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
The hosts followed that late-quarter flurry with 11 of the first 12 points of the second quarter to break the game open. Paris Clark and Taylor accounted for 6 points during that second quarter surge as both hit 3’s. Both players joined Brunelle and Johnson in double figures. Clark put up a big stat line of 14 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in addition to matching her career high of 6 steals. Taylor had 13 points and 5 rebounds.
Other contributions for the Cavaliers included a career-high 10 rebounds for Edessa Noyan, 8 points each from Jillian Brown and Cady Pauley, 4 points and 5 rebounds from Taylor Lauterbach, and 4 rebounds with 2 blocks from Olivia McGhee.
High Point never threatened in the second half as Virginia cruised to the WBIT win. The Hoos travel to Villanova on Sunday in the next round.
“It’s great. … To be able to turn it around and build and for us to get there is a big deal,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “It’s the first time since 2018 and that’s a long time and also to get a win in March. I think it’s going to be great. We want to continue to win. We want to win the whole thing. It’s going to be great for our seniors to go out on that note and it’s going to be really, really good experience for our returners, just to learn how to win in March. It’s a different feeling. When you’ve got to win when tomorrow’s not promised, you’ve got play with higher urgency, compete, and be on one accord. I just love the growth of our program and I think we’re going in the right direction.”
Way to go UVa ladies. You have come a long way from those recent dismissal teams. Thank you Coach Mox for accepting that formidable challenge to bring pride and respect to UVa women’s bball. Thank you team for never giving up and making us proud of you. Coach Mox, God bless you and keep up the tremendous job you and your staff have done!