You wouldn’t know if you saw McKenna Dale on Sunday that she’d been struggling with her shooting.
The 6’0” grad student had a career game in Virginia’s 78-36 win over UNC-Wilmington, scoring 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting, 4-of-9 from three.
Dale shot 27.2 percent from the floor last season at Virginia after transferring from Brown, and she was shooting 35.9 percent overall and 20.8 percent from behind the arc coming into the game on Sunday at JPJ.
Virginia (10-0) opened the game on a 17-4 run, but UNCW (2-5) would get the deficit down to 25-20 on a Jayde Gamble post layup at the 4:39 mark of the second quarter.
The Cavaliers closed the half on a 13-2 run to go into the break up 38-22, and were dominant from there.
A 14-0 run to open the third quarter pushed the lead to 30, and the ‘Hoos held the Seahawks to 14 points on 6-of-28 shooting in the second half.
Three other Virginia players were in double figures in scoring – London Clarkson with a career-high-tying 12, and Mir McLean and Cady Pauley chipping in 11 each.
UVA coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton thanked the Sunday crowd of 3,221 for creating “a really fun environment.”
“It’s electric in there when we’re going on our runs, and the energy in the building is awesome. That’s exactly what you want,” Agugua-Hamilton said.
The 10-0 start is the first for the program since the 1991 Final Four team started 10-0.
“I’m proud of our players,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “Being 10-0 is definitely a blessing, and we just want to continue to bring joy to the community in everything we do, especially during a dark time. I’m happy that we can put smiles on people’s faces.”
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Chris Graham
