Women’s Basketball: Virginia falls at Florida State, 62-37

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia women’s basketball team (3-15, 0-8 ACC) suffered a 62-37 loss at Florida State (10-9, 4-5 ACC) on Sunday (Jan. 30) at the Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Cavaliers struggled from the field as the Seminoles cruised to their fourth conference victory of the year.

Grad student guard Amandine Toi led the team with 10 points. Sophomore guard Kaydan Lawson came off the bench to lead the defensive efforts with six rebounds.

The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams with five lead changes and three ties. A three-pointer from Toi gave the Cavaliers a 9-6 advantage midway through the period, but the Seminoles retook the lead and held a 14-11 advantage heading into the second quarter.

The two teams continued to battle in the second period with a jumper from junior guard Taylor Valladay making it a 16-13 deficit for the Cavaliers with 7:59 remaining in the half. It would be the last field goal the Cavaliers would make in the period with Florida State building up a 28-16 halftime lead.

Toi ended the Cavaliers’ shooting drought by hitting a three-pointer 14 seconds into the second half, however it failed to ignite a rally. It was almost another five minutes before Valladay would make UVA’s second field goal of the period, a jumper at the 4:51 mark. Florida State led 35-21 after the Valladay jumper. Florida State would score the final 13 points of the quarter, the end of a 20-2 run, to lead 48-21 heading into the final frame.

The Cavaliers kept pace with Florida State in the fourth, with UVA outscoring the Seminoles 16-14 in the quarter.

UVA coach Tina Thompson

“We’re disappointed in our effort tonight. We started that first quarter kind of doing the things that we talked about – our game plan offensively and defensively – and something happened. And we just kind of went away from all the things that were necessary for us to stay in this game and give ourselves an opportunity to win. It’s almost like a broken record. I’m saying the same things over and over again. But the reality is that what it is going to take to win in this conference. You have to be disciplined. You have to execute. You have to defend. We have the ability to do so. We just have to decide that we’re going to do it over and over and over again.”

Notes

• Virginia shot 24.4 percent (11-of-45); Florida State shot 40.3 percent (25-of-62)
• Florida State held a 37-33 edge in rebounding
• Florida State scored 25 points off Virginia’s 24 turnovers
• The Seminoles outscored the Cavaliers 34-6 in the paint
• Virginia led for 3:52 in the first quarter
• Virginia went 1-of-11 (9.0 percent) in the second quarter from the floor but was 3-of-4 from the free throw line. UVA went 2-of-9 from the field in the third (22.2 percent)
• Mir McLean scored seven points with five of those coming from the free throw line

 Next up

• Virginia travels to play at Boston College (14-6, 5-4 ACC) on Thursday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m.
• The Cavaliers will be back home on Sunday, Feb. 6 when they take on Clemson (7-13, 1-8 ACC) for UVA’s National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration. The game tips at 4 p.m. and airs on the ACC Network