Wofford’s last-second shot upends Cavaliers, 71-70

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Wofford’s Rachael Rose threw up a floater with one second remaining, which banked off the glass and in, as the Terriers toppled Virginia, 71-70, at John Paul Jones Arena Saturday afternoon.

The loss snapped a three-game Virginia winning streak. The Cavaliers led for 33:24 of game time and out-rebounded Wofford, 45-27. 

Olivia McGhee (14 points), Paris Clark (14 points, 5 for 9 FG, 5 rebounds) and Camryn Taylor (13 points, 6 for 9 FG, 4 rebounds) led Virginia in scoring. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

Five of the Terriers’ 11 made 3-pointers came in the first period. UVA led 16-9 with under 3:00 left in the period, but the Terriers knockd down a pair of triples to trim the Cavaliers’ lead to 16-15 by the end of the first.

McGhee led all scorers after 10 minutes with seven points on 3-of-5 shooting, including one triple. Virginia (7-3) shot 44 percent from the field with the help of point guard Kymora Johnson (7 points, 9 assists), who tallied 5 of her 9 assists in the first quarter. 

After the Terriers tied the game, 23-23, the Cavaliers embarked on a 10-0 run midway through the second quarter. UVA grasped its largest lead of the game [36-25] with 2:04 to go in the first half. Later on, a Wofford 3-pointer with 42 seconds left closed out the first-half scoring and trimmed the UVA advantage to seven, 37-30.

Clark scored nine of her 14 points in the second quarter on 3-of-5 shooting and sunk a pair of free throws. Clark and London Clarkson (7 points, 9 rebounds) both played the entire second period. 

Coming out of the break, Wofford claimed the first six points to quickly cut the Cavaliers’ lead to two, 37-35. A 6-0 UVA run with under 2:00 to go in the quarter put the Hoos back in the driver seat heading into the fourth at which point Virginia led, 52-47. Taylor started the second half and posted seven points and three rebounds. 

Upon draining the first two baskets of the fourth quarter, the Terriers tied the game [52-52] for the first time since 6:32 in the second quarter. A 7-0 Wofford run shortly thereafter put the Terriers ahead 59-55 midway through the fourth, which marked their first lead since Wofford’s first made basket of the game.

The fourth quarter saw nine lead changes and four tied scores and neither team led by more than four points throughout. Virginia trailed 69-68 when Clark stole a Terriers’ inbound pass and dished it to Alexia Smith who finished the layup in transition to put the Hoos ahead 70-69 with 27 seconds left.

On the game’s final possession, Rose (21 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists) received a pass with four seconds left on the game clock, and drove right before releasing a contested runner, which banked in to put the Terriers’ up for good. Upon an officials’ review, the game clock displayed 0.4 seconds.

The Cavaliers called timeout to automatically advance the ball to half court, but to no avail, as the inbound pass was deflected away immediately erasing any hope of a UVA shot attempt. 

FROM HEAD COACH AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON

“First of all, credit to Wofford. I thought they played a heck of a game. We knew what their game plan was going to be. We knew that they were going to sag off of us and try and force us to shoot and things like that since we’ve been having some shooting woes.

“Number 12, Rose, she had a phenomenal game, almost a triple-double, really, really good player. The supporting cast, they stepped up and hit shots. So, hit 11 3s, which that’s really good. So, credit to them. They deserved to win. We didn’t deserve to win. I also want to say I apologize to our fans because the way we played, the lack of passion that we showed, the lack of energy, it’s not the kind of brand of basketball that we want to play, and we will get better.” 

ADDITIONAL NOTES 

• McGhee tied her career high in scoring. 
• Clark and Taylor also scored in double figures for the Cavaliers. 
• The Terriers won the inaugural series matchup. 
• Virginia is now 18-3 against non-conference opponents under head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton. 

UP NEXT

The Cavaliers return to John Paul Jones Arena to host Fordham on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra (ACCNX).