Women’s Basketball: Virginia falls 57-48 at No. 21 Duke

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia women’s basketball team (3-13, 0-6 ACC) suffered a 57-48 loss at No. 21 Duke (13-4, 4-3 ACC) on Sunday (Jan. 23) at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.

The Cavaliers cut a once 18-point deficit to five points late in the fourth quarter, but could not complete the comeback.

Sophomore guard Kaydan Lawson led the Cavaliers with 10 points. Grad student center Eleah Parker had 10 rebounds.

Shayeann Day-Wilson led Duke with 13 points.

Duke started the game making five of its first seven field goal attempts, pulling out to a 10-3 lead. The Cavalier defense then clamped down, holding the Blue Devils scoreless for a 4:40 span, but went into the second quarter trailing 14-5. In the second quarter, seven points from grad student guard McKenna Dale helped the Cavaliers narrow the gap to 23-17 with 2:27 remaining in the half, but Duke closed out the period on an 11-1 run, with a three-pointer from Jiselle Havas with 1.2 seconds left on the clock putting Duke ahead 34-18 at the break.

Junior guard Taylor Valladay scored the first points of the third quarter for either teams 3:46 into the frame. Lawson followed with another jumper, making the score 34-22 with 5:40 left in the period. The Blue Devils halted their scoring drought with a three-pointer from Nyah Green at the 5:04 mark. The Blue Devils went into the fourth quarter with a 46-29 lead.

The Cavaliers rallied in the fourth. Lawson, junior guard Carole Miller and junior forward London Clarkson each hit a jumper to start the quarter on a 6-2 run. The Cavaliers got six-straight points on another jumper from Lawson and back-to-back scores from grad student guard Amandine Toi to cut the gap to single digits, 50-41, with 5:45 remaining. A Valladay layup followed by another score from Lawson cut the gap to five, 50-45, with 2:33 remaining. Duke made just its third basket of the quarter, a jumper from Day-Wilson with 46.2 seconds left in the game to halt the Cavalier run. Duke went 5-of-8 from the free throw line in the final 25 seconds of the game while the Cavaliers missed their final four shots of the game.

UVA coach Tina Thompson

“I am a little disappointed in our first quarter. You know, we just didn’t start strong. It’s almost like we weren’t ready to play. In this league, it’s very competitive, and it’s really difficult to dig yourself out of holes especially that deep against a talented team. So the first quarter definitely did us in.”

“We’re kind of trending with almost comebacks, and that’s definitely not the team that we want to be. We’re having lapses in quarters and we’re digging ourselves a hole. Again, the ACC is a competitive conference. There’s not one gimme game. You have to show up ready to play each contest. So we have to do a better job of knowing when things are not going our way, reacting a lot quicker and not letting them spiral out of control.”

Notes

• Duke’s largest lead was 44-26 with 1:24 remaining in the third quarter
• Virginia shot 35.0 percent (21-of-60); Duke  went 22-of-46 (47.8 percent)
• Virginia was 2-of-15 (13.3 percent) from the floor in the first quarter and 9-of-16 (56.3 percent) in the fourth
• Duke held a 36-33 edge in rebounding
• Virginia was 3-of-17 from three-point range (17.6 percent) while Duke was 3-of-14 (21.4 percent)
• Kaydan Lawson’s 10-point game was her fourth time finishing in double figures this season
• Eleah Parker’s 11 rebounds was her second double-digit rebounding game of the year
• McKenna Dale set a new season high for points with seven, all scored in the second quarter. Her previous best was six this season
• This was Virginia’s third game of the week
• Virginia was scheduled to host No. 19 Notre Dame on Tuesday (Jan. 25), but the ACC announced on Saturday that game has been postponed. The new date is TBD

 Next up

• The Cavaliers return home to host Virginia Tech on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. in the second half of the Smithfield Commonwealth Clash