The first UVA Athletics event since the shootings that took the lives of football players Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry ended in victory.
Virginia rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit to win at Loyola Chicago, 68-62, on Wednesday.
The Cavaliers (4-0, 1-0 ACC) had four players finish the game in double figures, led by a 14-point performance by Mir McLean.
Chicago native Taylor Valladay scored 11 points, 10 of which came in the third quarter, with five assists.
Camryn Taylor, a native of Peoria, Ill., scored 12 points with five rebounds.
Maya Chandler led the Ramblers with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
This is Virginia’s first 4-0 start to the season since 2016-17.
“I am just incredibly proud of our group, our family. This was difficult,” UVA coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “Our community’s hurting. Our university is hurting. Our athletic department is hurting. Our football team is hurting. All those student-athletes and our players. We had several players that were very close to those three amazing young men, and just for us to have the courage to come out here and compete and band together and fight through adversity is very inspiring.”
Loyola Chicago led by six at the half, and by one, at 49-48, heading into the fourth quarter.
A jumper from Alexia Smith followed by one from Kaydan Lawson gave the Cavaliers a 56-51 edge with 6:30 remaining in the game. A jumper from McLean capped a 10-0 run that gave UVA a 58-51 lead with 4:28 remaining.
The Ramblers ended a 5:16 scoring drought at the free-throw line. A three-pointer then cut the lead to three, 58-55, heading into the final four minutes of play.
The Cavaliers scored six straight points to extend their lead to nine. The Ramblers cut the deficit to five in the final minute, but Virginia held on for the victory.
UVA shot 52.7 percent (29-of-55) while Loyola was 24-of-55 (43.6 percent).
Virginia was 0-of-10 from three-point range. It was the first time the team did not make a three-pointer since a loss at UCF on Nov. 25, 2020.
Loyola was 6-of-19 from three-point range, but only 1-of-7 in the second half.
A big win, on an emotional day.
“It’s just so fresh,” Coach Mox said. “It just happened. It affects so many. It definitely was affecting our players. I mean, they were emotional in warm-ups. They were emotional all day, but they wanted to play. So I stood behind them. I wanted them to be able to make that decision and they wanted to play to honor them. And I think they did that tonight.”
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Chris Graham
