Women’s Basketball: Virginia falls 74-65 to Richmond

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia women’s basketball team (1-6) fell 74-65 against Richmond (3-3) in the final game of the Cavalier Classic tournament on Sunday at John Paul Jones Arena.

The Cavaliers cut a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to two points with 4:23 remaining, but the Spiders held on for the victory.

Grad student guard Amandine Toi was one of three Cavaliers to finish the game in double figures with 20 points. Junior forward Camryn Taylor scored 14 points with a team-high nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Kaydan Lawson came off the bench to score 10 points with six rebounds.

Richmond had three players in double figures led by Addie Budnik with 20 points.

Junior guard Carole Miller hit a three-pointer 13 seconds into the game, but Richmond answered with a 9-0 run. Junior forward Meg Jefferson reignited the Cavalier offense by hitting a jumper with 6:15 left in the quarter. Toi drove baseline to earn an and-one and then hit a jumper on UVA’s next possession to make it a one-point deficit. A three-pointer from grad student guard McKenna Dale knotted the game at 16, but the Spiders scored the final bucket of the quarter to take an 18-16 lead into the second.

Virginia again struck early in the period, scoring four points in the first 45 seconds to take a 20-18 lead and held a three-point advantage with 6:49 remaining. The Spiders answered with five quick points to retake the lead. Richmond had another five-point scoring spurt to build up a 38-30 lead with 45 seconds left in the half, a score that held at the break.

Richmond built up its first double-digit lead with 4:56 remaining in the third, but back-to-back buckets from Toi got the Cavaliers back to within seven with 3:09 left in the period. UVA trailed by eight heading into the fourth quarter.

The Spiders built up a 12-point lead with 8:05 left in the game, but the Cavaliers put together a 6-0 run to half the deficit with 6:29 remaining. A three-pointer from Kate Klimkiewicz, the eighth of the game for the Spiders, temporarily halted the streak. Junior guard Taylor Valladay came up with a steal, racing down to the other end. She was fouled while making the layup, giving her a three-point play and cutting the deficit to four. Taylor made two free throws on UVA’s next possession to make it a 61-59 deficit with 4:23 remaining, but the Spiders answered with a field goal, and then built up a six-point advantage heading into the final two minutes of play. A contested layup by Lawson with 1:11 remaining made it 68-63, but the Spiders drained a three-pointer on the opposite end to make it 71-63 with 45 seconds remaining. The Spiders held on for a nine-point victory.

FROM HEAD COACH TINA THOMPSON

“Another tough one for us. Consistency is our kryptonite right now. We have these moments where we’re playing at a high level but it’s going to require us, in order to get wins, to play at that level from start to finish. We have these lulls, in a sense, they’re backbreaking. We’re digging these holes for ourselves and it’s been really tough for us to get out of. The conversation is consistently being consistent, and that’s where we have to be. When you have the talent that we have, and we’re playing against teams that are cohesive and work really hard. You have to match that level of work, and now we’re having a little trouble doing that right now. So the theme is going to continue to be moving forward, that we have to work at a high level and we have to be consistent in that work.”

NOTES

• Virginia shot 38.1 percent from the floor (24-of-63); Richmond shot 52.0 percent (26-of-50)
• Richmond was 9-of-21 from three-point range (42.9 percent); Virginia was 4-of-18 (22.2 percent)
• Virginia held a 41-29 edge in rebounding
• Virginia missed five of its first six free throw attempts and was 2-of-7 from the line in the first half. Both teams finished the game going 13-of-20 from the line (65.0 percent)
• Amandine Toi was 9-of-15 shooting, but 0-of-5 from three-point range
• This was Toi’s second 20-point game of the season and the fourth by a UVA player
• The 20 points matched Toi’s season high
• McKenna Dale had two of Virginia’s three-pointers, scoring six points with seven rebounds. She was 2-of-7 from three-point range
• Richmond outscored UVA 34-26 in the paint but the Spiders had zero second-chance points and only five offensive rebounds. Virginia scored 11 second-chance points on 19 offensive rebounds

ON THE HORIZON

• The Cavaliers will host William & Mary (3-2, 0-0 CAA) on Thursday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena