A tough first season for UVA women’s basketball coach Tina Thompson came to an end Wednesday in the second round of the 2019 ACC Tournament.
UVA (12-19, 5-11 ACC) lost 67-57 to No. 18 Syracuse (23-7, 11-5 ACC).
Junior guard Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.) led the Cavaliers with 19 points. Junior guard Dominique Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.) scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Syracuse had four players finish the game in double figures, led by Digna Strautmane with 14 points. Virginia shot 37.3 percent (22-of-59) while Syracuse shot 50.0 percent (24-of-48), including going 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) from three-point range. Both teams had 29 rebounds.
Virginia, fueled by a pair of and-ones from Dominique Toussaint, kept pace with Syracuse in the first quarter, trailing by just two, 18-16, through the first eight minutes of the game. The Orange closed the period by scoring four free throws and opened the second quarter by hitting a three to build up a nine-point lead.
The Cavaliers chipped away, pulling to within three, 32-29, on a layup from junior forward Lisa Jablonowski (Ernster, Luxembourg) with 3:25 remaining in the half, but the Orange finished the half on an 8-0 run, including back-to-back threes from Miranda Drummond, to take a 40-29 lead into the break.
Syracuse built up a 14-point advantage in the third quarter, but the Cavaliers refused to go away. A three-pointer from Toussaint narrowed the gap to seven, 61-54, with 5:02 remaining in the game, but the Orange answered with four-straight points.
Willoughby hit another three with 2:40 remaining to again get the deficit to single digits, 65-57, but the Orange slowed down the pace of the game and managed the clock to finish the game with a 10-point victory.
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Chris Graham
