Women’s Basketball: Shorthanded Virginia loses late lead, falls to Louisville, 63-53

Virginia, when healthy, against a weak non-conference schedule, got out to a 12-0 start in Year 1 of the Amaka Agugua-Hamilton era.

Now the opposite of healthy, playing in the rugged ACC, it’s been a tough slog.

The slog continued Thursday night with a 63-53 loss to Louisville in JPJ.

UVA (14-11, 3-11 ACC) has been without second-leading scorer Mir McLean for a while, and is now having to make do without its third-leading scorer, Sam Brunelle.

It didn’t help that Camryn Taylor and London Clarkson fouled out in the fourth quarter Thursday night, just ahead of a 7-0 run by Louisville (18-8, 9-4 ACC) that broke the game open.

Before the late collapse, Virginia had controlled this one most of the way, leading by as many as 10 two minutes into the third quarter.

But the Cavaliers had to make a go of it with just eight healthy players, which forced Coach Mox to go to a zone defense to try to preserve the team’s legs.

“That was a tough one,” Aguga-Hamilton said. “We’re trying to take some positives away from things. Obviously, we’re on a losing streak and I’m probably the most competitive person I know, and I hate losing. But at the same time, I was proud of our fight.”

Taylor led UVA with 14 points, while guard Taylor Valladay added 11 points and six assists, all in the first half. Clarkson finished with eight points.

“We’ve got something to build on,” Aguga-Hamilton said. “Obviously, it didn’t result in a win, and it’s disappointing, but I know that we can get better, and we will.”