Johnson’s 35 Points Leads UVA in 91-87 Road Win at No. 15 FSU

TALLAHASSEE Fla. – First-year guard Kymora Johnson tallied 35 points on 14-of-20 shooting, pulled down seven rebounds and dished six assists to lead Virginia (9-9, 1-6 ACC) to a 91-87 triumph over No. 15 Florida State (14-6, 5-3 ACC) at Tucker Center Sunday afternoon (Jan. 21). The win is the Cavaliers’ first in league play this season and first true road win over an ACC team since the 2019-20 season.

Johnson’s 35 points tied for sixth all-time in program history, and she is now one of just two freshmen in school history to achieve that milestone with the other being Dawn Staley, who had 37 points at Wake Forest on Feb. 2, 1989.

In addition to Johnson, Olivia McGhee (12 pts, 5-10 FG), Camryn Taylor (11 pts, 5-10 FG, 10 reb), Jillian Brown (10 pts, 4-6 FG, 6 reb) and London Clarkson (10 pts, 6 reb) all scored in double figures. Taylor recorded her 11^th career double-double and third of the season. Edessa Noyan came off the bench and logged 25 minutes of action and tied her career high of eight points.

The score was knotted 65-65 going into the fourth quarter, but the Hoos shot 63 percent from the field and Johnson tallied 10 points in the final period to help deliver the Cavaliers’ first victory in Tallahassee since the 2011-12 season.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Virginia leaped out to an 11-1 lead within the first 2:36 of play with scores from Paris Clark, Johnson and McGhee. Florida State settled in offensively towards the middle of the quarter and eventually trimmed the UVA lead to as little as two. Brown drilled a 3-pointer with under 30 second to go as the Cavaliers led 27-22 at the end of the first. Virginia shot 53 percent from the field in the first quarter and were led in scoring by McGhee, who had seven points in the first.

The Seminoles took their first lead of the game on a 7-0 run in the middle of the second and outscored UVA 21-12 in the period. Eight of the Cavaliers’ dozen points were from Johnson. Florida State led 43-39 at the break, which included 19 Seminole points off 13 UVA turnovers. FSU did not commit a single turnover in the opening half. Virginia was charged with 13 first-half fouls, while the Noles had only five.

The Cavaliers scored the first seven points of the second half, but FSU responded with a 9-0 run of its own. The Seminoles grasped their largest lead of the contest [56-48] at the 5:52 mark of the third. After that, Johnson scored nine of her 12 third-quarter points, and Brown drilled a 3-pointer to give UVA a 65-63 lead with under 1:00 to go in the period. With three seconds remaining, FSU made a layup to tie the score 65-65 heading into the fourth.

Florida State grasped its final lead of the contest after scoring the first point of the fourth quarter. McGhee swished a 3 with a little under 4:00 to play to give Virginia its largest lead of the game, 82-74. With 26 seconds remaining, Johnson hit a floater in the paint to put the Hoos up 87-83. The Seminoles applied full-court pressure, but ultimately sent Johnson to the charity stripe twice in the final 16 seconds. Johnson made all four attempts at the line to seal the win for the Hoos. The Cavaliers connected on 10 of their 16 attempts from the field in the final period. The Noles only managed four rebounds in the fourth, two of which were off UVA misses. Johnson tallied 10 points in quarter No. 4, including the Hoos’ last six of the game

FROM HEAD COACH AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON
“I just am so proud. A lot of teams fold when you go through adversity six games in a row. It’s easy to just be like, ‘Alright, we’re throwing in the towel.’ But everybody kept believing. I kept believing, I was not gonna let us quit. Our players were not gonna let us quit. There was so much fight in this team, and if you watched our games, we kept getting better and better. We’re getting more performance from the bench. There’s just so much to be proud about. Mo [Kymora Johnson] was phenomenal. She had that refuse-to-lose mentality—we are not leaving here without a win—which was everybody’s mentality, but she really walked that walk on a sprained ankle, mind you, from last game. I thought Edessa [Noyan] came in and played some really key minutes for us as a freshman. [Olivia McGee] played great. London [Clarkson] played 28 minutes [in] foul trouble and was still physical and able to do what she did. [Camryn Taylor] and Paris [Clark] started off really good and set the tone. [Kaydan Lawson] came in to play some clutch minutes at the end. [Jillian Brown], this is the JJ we know and I think it just took time for her to get comfortable. I just love how everybody was on one accord. No matter when Florida State punched back, we just stayed locked in. Everybody was focused and we had that breakthrough that we knew was coming.”

WITH THE WIN…

• Virginia snapped a six game-losing skid and earned its first ACC win of the year.
• The Cavaliers secured their first road win over a ranked opponent since Feb. 13, 2011, when UVA toppled then-No. 11 Maryland, 60-57, in College Park.
• Virginia improved to 36-22 in the all-time series with the Seminoles, which began in 1990.
• The Cavaliers snapped a six-game losing skid in games played in Tallahassee … UVA’s last true road win over the Seminoles was on Feb. 26, 2012, when the Hoos defeated FSU, 66-57.
• Virginia claimed its first win over an AP top-15 team since knocking off the fourth-ranked Seminoles on Feb. 16, 2017.
• Amaka Agugua-Hamilton improved to 98-39 all-time as a head coach, including 24 wins at UVA.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Kymora Johnson’s 35 points are tied for sixth in program single-game history.
• The last time a Cavalier scored 35 points was on Jan. 21, 2010, when Monica Wright scored 39 points at Boston College.
• Johnson and Dawn Staley are the only two freshmen in program history to score at least 35 points in a single game … Staley scored 37 at Wake Forest on Feb. 8, 1989.
• Virginia entered Sunday’s contest having won just three of its last 50 matchups against ranked opponents.
• Virginia’s 91 points are its most in regulation against an ACC opponent since Jan. 30, 1998, when the Cavaliers scored 93 against Georgia Tech … The last time UVA scored at least 91 points against an ACC foe was in quadruple overtime at NC State on Feb. 10, 2011, when the Hoos scored 103.
• With 11 points and 10 rebounds, Camryn Taylor notched her 11^th career double-double and third of the season.
• UVA had five players score in double figures (Johnson – 35; McGhee –12 pts; Taylor – 11; Brown – 10; Clarkson – 10).

UP NEXT
Virginia returns to John Paul Jones Arena to host Pittsburgh (6-13, 0-6 ACC) on Thursday (Jan. 25). Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.