Virginia got 22 points from Taylor Valladay and connected on 13-of-16 at the line in the final four minutes to hold off #22 NC State in a 71-59 win on Sunday in Charlottesville.
The win snaps a seven-game losing streak for UVA (15-11, 4-11 ACC), and was the first by a Virginia team against a ranked opponent since a W over Florida State in 2017.
NC State (17-8, 7-7 ACC) got 22 points from Jada Boyd, but the Pack’s leading scorer, Diamond Johnson, scored just five points on 1-of-12 shooting, going 0-of-8 from three against a zone defense employed by Virginia coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton to try to cover for her shortened roster.
UVA led 28-24 at the break after holding State to 28.6 percent shooting, and the shooting woes would persist for the Wolfpack, which would finish 4-of-28 from three.
The Cavaliers used a 9-0 run early in the second half to grow their lead to 39-27, and following a second-chance basket by the Wolfpack’s River Baldwin, Kaydan Lawson connected on a three and Valladay led a fast break for another basket to increase the lead to 44-29.
NC State managed to close UVA’s lead to 50-43 with 7:50 remaining on a driving layup by Aziaha James, but that was as close as the game would get, despite the ‘Hoos having to play most of the fourth quarter with Camryn Taylor, McKenna Dale and London Clarkson with four fouls.
Taylor fouled out with 4:37 remaining, and Dale picked up her fifth foul at the 3:07 mark. UVA ended the game with six players.
“I’m really, really, really proud of our group,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “We’ve been through a lot of adversity outside of the game, and people just see a losing streak and things like that, but there’s just been so many things that have happened behind the scenes. So, even being down to eight players that are available to play, we never wavered. Our players just kept believing, they kept believing in me, kept believing in each other, kept believing in themselves, believing in the game plan.
“We’ve been close in a lot of games, but no one no one’s feeling sorry for themselves, we didn’t want any pity or anything like that. We just kept fighting and when you do that, great things can happen and that’s what happened tonight.”
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Chris Graham
