Virginia’s Comeback Effort Falls Short Against No. 25 Oklahoma

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – After trailing by as many as 20 points in the third quarter, Virginia (3-1) trimmed its deficit to as little five points, but it was not enough as No. 25 Oklahoma (5-0) handed the Cavaliers their first loss of the season, 82-67, at John Paul Jones Arena Sunday afternoon (Nov. 19).

Camryn Taylor scored a team-high 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and added six rebounds and two steals. Olivia McGhee scored a season-high 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting and pulled down five rebounds. London Clarkson also scored in double figures (13 points, 4-8 FG, 3 steals).

Virginia shot just 1-for-23 from deep, but forced 21 OU turnovers, which resulted in 21 points for the Hoos.

The loss marked UVA’s first against a non-conference opponent under head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, who is in her second year at UVA. The Cavaliers are now 14-1 against non-ACC foes under Agugua-Hamilton.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia shot just 33 percent in the opening quarter and missed all eight attempts from 3-point range. The two teams were tied 7-7 when the Sooners scored 11 straight points. A layup by Brunelle broke up the OU run and kickstarted a 9-1 run for the Hoos, which included a pair of fast break layups by McGhee. UVA went on to shrink its first quarter deficit to as little as three (21-18), but the Sooners converted an and-1 with six seconds remaining to round out the scoring and lead it 24-18 after the first 15 minutes of play.

OU outscored the Cavaliers 20-9 in the second quarter to lead it 44-27 at the break. The Sooners tallied 10 straight points to grasp a 42-23 lead – its largest at the time – with 2:47 to go in the first half. In her season debut, Kaydan Lawson scored five of her six points in the second quarter, while Sam Brunelle scored the other four for the Hoos.

Virginia held OU to just five made baskets in the in the third quarter as UVA outscored the Sooners 21-13 for the period. Clarkson posted eight of her 13 points in the third, and McGhee and Taylor scored six each. Although UVA only managed six field goals in quarter No. 3, the Hoos were 9-for-11 from the charity stripe, including Clarkson who went 4-for-5. By the end of the quarter, OU’s lead was 57-48, which marked the first time UVA trailed by single digits since early on in the second quarter.

The Hoos scored seven of the first 10 points to cut the Sooners’ lead to five [60-55] with 7:46 to play, but that was as close as UVA would get the rest of the way. Kymora Jonson led all UVA scorers in the fourth when she recorded six of her nine points. Virginia recorded a dozen offensive rebounds in the second half in contrast to OU’s four.

FROM UVA HEAD COACH AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON
“It never feels good to lose obviously. Credit to Oklahoma, they played a great game, they played tough, I thought they played really well on both sides of the ball. For us, obviously we struggled to shoot it from the 3, which is uncharacteristic…We shoot it well in practice and we’re just waiting for that to click under the lights. I didn’t like how many 3s we were taking but I thought some of the ones that we did take could have gone in. We had a few bright spots. I thought O [Olivia McGhee] played really well. For the second half, I thought Kaydan Lawson came back and played some good minutes, [and] Cam and London really held it down in the post. So, I thought we had some bright spots there, but overall we have to be better and we will…It’s great to play teams like this early…We just have to get back to the grind, shake some things up, make sure we understand consistency and accountability a little bit more, and just execute the game plan, because when we do that we’re fine. There were times during the game that I thought we really did that, especially in the second half. We’re better than what we showed tonight, but at the same time, that’s a top-25 team. We’re not there yet, [but] we will be.”

NOTES

• With the loss, Virginia dropped its first game to a non-conference opponent since Amaka Agugua-Hamilton became UVA head coach in the spring of 2022.
• The meeting was the first-ever between the Virginia and Oklahoma.
• Ranked No. 25 in this week’s AP poll, the Sooners are the first ranked team UVA faced this season.
• Virginia attempted 83 shots from the field, the most since taking 85 shots in last year’s 101-46 win over UMBC on Nov. 11, 2022.

UP NEXT
For the first time this season, the Cavaliers hit the road when they travel to Grand Cayman for the annual Cayman Islands Classic event. Virginia faces Tulane on Friday (Nov. 24) at 11 a.m. and reigning national championship LSU on Saturday (Nov. 25) at 5 p.m. Both matchups are set to stream on FloHoops ($). Fans can also tune in live on WINA (98.9FM/1070AM).