Women’s Basketball: Virginia survives late Wake Forest rally, wins in three OTs

Virginia led by 15 at halftime, 11 with five minutes to go, but had to survive three OTs to finish off a 109-103 win at Wake Forest on Thursday.

Would have been a bad loss for UVA (15-6, 7-3 ACC, NET: 37), because the game with Wake Forest (12-10, 2-8 ACC, NET: 120) was a Quad 3 game.

It would have also been a bad loss because this one was in the bag.

The Cavaliers led 40-25 at the break, on the strength of forcing 13 Wake turnovers, and a 17-2 advantage in points off turnovers.

A Gabby White jumper with 5:50 left in regulation had Virginia up 11, 72-61, but here, the Demon Deacons clamped down on D.

The ‘Hoos missed eight of their last nine from the field in the final five minutes, and Wake climbed back into it, and forced the OT on a Milan Brown three with one second remaining.

Virginia would need to rally at the end of the second OT, getting a pair of free throws from Caitlin Weimar with one second left to send the game to a third OT.

UVA opened the final five minutes with a  6-0 run, and Kymora Johnson finished the game out at the line with four free throws in the final 16 seconds.

Johnson finished with 26 points (7-of-23 FG, 5-of-13 3FG, 7-of-8 FT), eight assists and five turnovers in 54 minutes.

Weimar had 25 points (8-of-12 FG, 9-of-10 FT) and 10 rebounds for Virginia, which got 22 points from White (9-of-16 FG, 4-of-6 FT), along with 12 rebounds and six assists.

Brown, whose three sent the game to OT in the first place, had 30 for Wake Forest (11-of-20 FG, 3-of-4 3FG, 5-of-7 FT), along with 11 rebounds and five assists.

NCAA Tournament resume

---

Virginia is 37 in the NET, but just 77 in RPI.

Key

Quad 1: Home (1-25), Neutral (1-35), Away (1-45)
Quad 2: Home (26-55), Neutral (36-65), Away (46-80)

Quad 1 record: 0-3 (losses to Vanderbilt, Duke, Nebraska).
Quad 2 record: 1-2 (win over Clemson, losses to NC State, Syracuse).
Bad loss: Quad 4 loss to UMBC (8-10, NET: 213).

Key upcoming games

---

• Quad 1: @Virginia Tech (17-5, 7-3 ACC, NET: 43), Feb. 1
• Quad 2: Miami (12-9, 4-6 ACC, NET: 48), Feb. 5
• Quad 2: Notre Dame (13-8, 5-5 ACC, NET: 32), Feb. 8
• Quad 2: @Cal (13-9, 4-5 ACC, NET: 54), Feb. 12
• Quad 1: @Stanford (15-7, 4-5 ACC, NET: 36), Feb. 15
• Quad 1: @Louisville (20-3, 10-0 ACC, NET: 9), Feb. 22
• Quad 1: North Carolina (17-5, 6-3 ACC, NET: 21), Feb. 26
• Quad 2: Virginia Tech (17-5, 7-3 ACC, NET: 43),March 1