UVa. women romp past Clemson

The Virginia women’s basketball team won its second-consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference contest, dispatching Clemson 68-36 on Sunday (Feb. 12) afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.

With the victory, Virginia improved to 18-8 overall and 6-6 in ACC play. The loss dropped Clemson’s record to 6-17 and 2-10 in league play.

Senior forward Chelsea Shine (Wayne, Pa.) was UVa’s leading scorer with 20 points. Shine moved closer to her 1,000th-career point as she now has 986 points over her four-year career. The senior added seven rebounds, three assists and four steals. It was her first 20-point game of the season.

Also in double figures for Virginia was senior guard Ariana Moorer (Woodbridge, Va.) with 13 points, seven assists and six steals and sophomore guard Kelsey Wolfe (Germantown, Md.) with a career-high tying 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals.

As a team, Virginia tallied 26 steals, which tied the school record also set earlier this season vs. Wagner and in 1990 vs. Old Dominion. UVa forced 29 Clemson turnovers and scored 32 points off of those turnovers.

Virginia out-rebounded the Tigers, 42-29, and improved to 12-0 this season when out-rebounding an opponent.

Virginia improved to 38-29 all-time vs. Clemson and has now won nine of its last 10 meetings with the Tigers.

Junior guard Lexie Gerson (Fort Washington, Pa.) just missed her first-career double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. She added five steals and four assists. Simone Egwu (Odenton, Md.) tallied seven points and seven rebounds.

Clemson’s leading scorer was Nikki Dixon with 13 points. Quinyotta Pettaway added 10 points and five rebounds.

Virginia started the game scoring seven unanswered points and extended its lead to 17 points, 22-5, on a lay-up by Moorer with 10:54 left in the first half.

The Cavaliers led, 37-17 at halftime.

Virginia’s non-starters combined for 17 points and all nine players that saw action recorded at least one steal for the Cavaliers.

Up next, Virginia hosts ACC rival Maryland on Thursday (Feb. 16) at 7 p.m.