Kymora Johnson had 28 points, Sa’Myah Smith had 22, and #10 seed Virginia outlasted #7 seed Georgia, 82-73, in OT, on a day when temperatures in the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, which doesn’t have AC, got into the low 80s.
How is it 2026, and we’re playing Women’s NCAA Tournament games in an arena without AC?
“Iowa gets a lot of fans, and it was really cool to see the stadium fill up. Although it was very hot,” said Johnson, who hit five threes, was 7-of-7 at the line, and had six assists, and one turnover, in 44 minutes.
Smith was 10-of-12 from the field – she made her first eight shots – and had 11 rebounds for Virginia (21-11), the first double-digit seed to get a win in the 2026 women’s tourney.
The ’Hoos led by as many as 10 in the first half, but Georgia (22-10) led 43-42 at the half, and got up eight (64-56) two minutes into the fourth quarter.
Back-to-back threes in a 30-second span from Johnson and Romi Levy (14 points, 5-of-10 FG, 4-of-6 3FG) got the deficit down to one, and the game was on from there.
A Levy three with 1:29 to go tied the game at 71, and that’s where things stood at the end of regulation.
In the OT, Virginia got out to an early advantage with jumpers from Johnson and Smith, then held Georgia scoreless for the final 3:16.
Virginia will face #2 seed Iowa (27-6) on Monday in Iowa City, where the high temperature today was 91 degrees; on Monday, the forecast calls for highs in the mid-50s.
Wonder if the arena there has heat.
“There was a lot of adversity in that game, and we had to fight to push it to overtime and then also to do what we did in overtime. Once we got to overtime, we knew it was our game,” UVA coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said.
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Chris Graham
