Women’s Basketball: UVA dominates fourth quarter, defeats George Washington, 85-59

The Coach Mox era got off to a winning start with a big fourth quarter pushing UVA to an 85-59 win over George Washington on Monday at JPJ.

The Cavaliers trailed 34-30 at the half and by six points early in the third quarter but outscored the Colonials 55-25 in the second half.

Camryn Taylor led the Cavaliers with 22 points and 13 rebounds, one of five Cavaliers to finish the game in double figures. Kaydan Lawson scored a career-high 18 points with nine rebounds.

GW’s Taylor Webster made a jumper to start the second half, pushing George Washington’s lead back to six with 9:18 left in the third. Virginia junior Taylor Valladay tied the game on a free throw with 6:30 remaining in the quarter, the first of three ties in the period.

The Cavaliers broke the final tie by scoring the last four points of the quarter to take a 54-50 lead into the final period.

UVA then dominated the final quarter, outscoring George Washington 31-9. Valladay opened the frame by making a three-pointer to push the lead out to seven. An and-one for Sam Brunelle gave the Cavaliers their first double-digit lead, 62-52, with 8:35 remaining.

A three-pointer from Lawson with 4:57 remaining ignited an 18-2 run to end the game.

Taylor Valladay finished the game with 12 points and four assists. Sam Brunelle and Carole Miller both had 10 points

Virginia shot 44.1 percent (30-of-68) while George Washington was 22-of-69 (31.9 percent)

The Cavaliers were 16-of-21 (76.2 percent) from the free throw line while GW was 9-of-11 (81.8 percent)

Virginia held a 53-36 advantage in rebounding.

“I’m just proud of our group,” UVA coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “I think especially in the second half, we came together, played together, really dialed into the game plan and had each other’s back. [We] put a little bit more energy and effort into what we were doing, and we were able to turn the game around and create a big gap. So, I’m happy about how we played in the second half. [In the] first half we had to weather the storm, there was some adversity, but I mean, it’s [the] first game, there’s first game jitters and we just had to get a rhythm and I’m happy we did.”