The UVA women’s basketball team (12-18, 5-11 ACC) advanced to the second round of the 2019 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament after picking up a 77-61 victory over Boston College (14-16, 3-13 ACC) on Wednesday at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.
The Cavaliers had four players finish the game with double-digit points, led by junior guard Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.) who scored a career-high 29 points with 13 rebounds. Junior guard Dominique Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.) scored 11 points, reaching the 1,000 career point milestone in the game. Boston College had three players finish in double-figures, led by Emma Guy with 18 points and seven rebounds. Virginia shot 43.6 percent (24-of-55) while Boston College shot 37.9 percent (25-of-66). Virginia held a 38-31 edge in rebounding.
The Cavaliers will take on 5-seed Syracuse on Thursday, March 7 at 11 a.m. in the second round.
Virginia opened the game on an 11-0 run, but Boston College chipped away at the lead, tying the game on a three from Milan Bolden-Morris with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter and taking the lead on another Bolden-Morris trey 50 seconds later. Jocelyn Willoughby ended an 8-0 BC run after grabbing an offensive rebound off her own three-point miss, but the Cavaliers went into halftime trailing 29-23. The Cavaliers rallied in the third quarter, with Willoughby scoring seven points in an 8-0 run to narrow a once 12-point deficit. The Cavaliers extended the run out to a 16-2 advantage, with a three-pointer from Dominique Toussaint followed by a trey from Khyasia Caldwell putting the Cavaliers into the lead, 41-40, and the Cavaliers building up a 49-44 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
In the final quarter, Boston College pulled to within two, 53-51, on a jumper by Bolden-Morris with 7:06 remaining, but back-to-back jumpers from Toussaint and Willoughby gave the Cavaliers breathing room.
The Cavaliers went 10-of-10 from the free throw line in the final two minutes to build up the double-digit victory.