Women’s basketball: UVA holds on for a 63-56 win at Richmond

The UVA women’s basketball team (3-0) picked up a 63-56 road victory at Richmond (0-2) on Wednesday at the Robins Center in Richmond, Va.

Virginia held a 35-20 lead at halftime, but the Spiders came back to tie the game, 54-54, on a jumper by Alicia Hudalla with 2:08 remaining. Junior forward Lauren Moses (Mount Holly, N.J.) hit a jumper on the next possession to put the Cavaliers back in the lead. After a blocked shot by junior guard Aliyah Huland El (Randolph, N.J.) and a defensive rebound from freshman Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.), Moses kicked the ball out to junior J’Kyra Brown (Rocky Mount, N.C.) on the wing who hit a three to give UVA a 59-54 lead with 56 seconds remaining. Moses went 4-for-4 from the freethrow line down the stretch to close out the win.

Moses scored a career-high 27 points, going 9-of-14 from the field and 9-of-9 from the freethrow line. Moses also had four assists, four rebounds and two steals. Micaela Parsons led Richmond with 18 points, six assists and six rebounds.

“A lot of credit goes to Richmond,” said Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle. “I thought they came out on fire and they just played hard. I felt that we played complacent, we didn’t move well in the zone and our closeouts were not good. They were able to get some easy shots off and a lot of second chance points in the first half. I don’t feel like our effort was there like we had in the first two games, nor was our rebounding and those two things hurt us. It was nice to see balance as Lauren stepped up for us and had a big night after our freshmen were big in our first two games.”

After a slow start to the game, the Cavaliers closed out the first quarter with a 6-0 run in the final three minutes to take a 14-9 lead. The Cavaliers rode the momentum into the second quarter, starting the period on an 8-2 run to extend the lead to 22-11 on a fastbreak layup from Huland El with 8:02 remaining in the half. Virginia closed out the half on another 8-2 run, including back-to-back threes from Huland El and freshman guard Dominique Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.), to give UVA a 35-20 lead at the break.

After shooting just 24.1 percent in the first half, the Spiders came out of the break on fire, going on a 10-2 run to make it a 37-30 game. Moses halted the run by converting an and-one opportunity with 5:43 remaining in the quarter. Moses would go on to score the first nine Virginia points of the quarter. Toussaint hit a three-pointer with 51.8 seconds left in the quarter to put Virginia back up by 12, but Lauren Tolson countered with a three for the Spiders on the opposite end.

The Spiders hit a pair of three pointers in the fourth quarter to cut their deficit to three, 54-51, with just under four minutes remaining. Alicia Hudalla hit a jumper just inside the arc with 1:44 remaining to tie the game at 54.

The Cavaliers shot 40.4 percent in the game while Richmond made 35.8 percent of its field goal attempts. The Spiders had a 38-32 edge in rebounding.

The Cavaliers will be back at home on Sunday, Nov. 20, hosting Rutgers at 6 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena.

Single-game ticket prices for all home games are $10 for Reserved seating, $8 for adult General Admission and $6 for youth (18 & under), senior (60 & over) and UVA faculty/staff General Admission. Fans may purchase home game tickets through the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone and in person. The Virginia Athletics Ticket Office is located in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium and open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Telephone purchases can be made by calling 1-800-542-UVA1 (8821) or locally at 434-924-UVA1 (8821).