Cavaliers Fall to No. 19 Syracuse, 85-79

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 19 Syracuse (22-5, 12-3 ACC) outscored Virginia (12-13, 4-10) by 14 points in the first quarter en route to the Orange’s 85-79 victory at John Paul Jones Arena Sunday afternoon (Feb. 18).

The Cavaliers were led by Camryn Taylor (20 pts, 9-15 FG, 8 reb), Paris Clark (16 pts, 7-11, 7 reb) and Kymora Johnson (15 pts, 10 ast), who recorded her first career double-double. Johnson’s 10 assists are also a season high. Sam Brunelle added 10 points and five assists.

Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair scored a game-high 33 points on 13-of-23 shooting, including 5-of-10 from beyond the arc. Georgia Woolley added 26 points on 7-of-13 shooting and made all eight of her attempts at the line. With the win, the Orange extended their win streak to five games and currently second in the ACC standings.

Sunday’s game was the Cavaliers’ annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day game. Virginia honored former women’s basketball head coach Debbie Ryan at halftime in front of season-high 6,619 fans.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Syracuse scored the first eight points of the game before ultimately leading by 14 points [24-10] by the close of the period. The Orange shot 60 percent from the field, while UVA shot just 20 percent and had seven of its 12 total turnovers in  quarter No. 1.

Fair scored 11 of her 33 points in the second. UVA cut the Cuse lead to as little as nine [28-19] after a solid start to the period. Later in the quarter, the Orange scored eight straight points to extend their lead to 17 [39-21]. Cuse led 45-28 at the half. All 10 of Brunelle’s points came in the first half.

The Cavaliers made six of the first seven field goals of the second half. A jumper by Olivia McGhee capped a 9-0 run by the Hoos and trimmed SU’s lead back to single digits, 49-41. The Orange closed out the period by scoring the final six points to lead it 66-51 entering the fourth.

Virginia started to find its groove offensively against the Orange’s zone defense in the fourth. UVA shot 12-of-21 from the field and scored 28 points in the period. The Cavaliers chipped away at the SU lead to cut it to four [77-73] with 1:32 to play. Brunelle and Johnson could not connect on a pair of 3s with under 1:00 to play at which point UVA began to foul. Virginia forced a five-second turnover with 16 seconds to play, but ultimately ran out of time to mount a comeback despite outscoring the Orange by nine points in the fourth.

FROM HEAD COACH AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON
“I thought there was a lot of controllables on our end. Obviously, credit to Syracuse. They played great and they have some players are just really hard to guard. It was a tale of two teams. [In the] first half I thought we were completely different than the second half and had we been the second-half team, I think there probably would have been a different outcome. But, Dyaisha Fair, she’s special. She had 33 points. We tried a lot of things: run different people at her, face guard her, hedge her, trap her, and she just kind of had her way and was pretty difficult to guard. Some of the other ones I thought were controllables…we gave [Syracuse] too many wide open shots. But, when our urgency kicked in and our competitiveness, we look pretty good in the second half. So, we just got to, again, put together a 40-minute game.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• With 15 points and 10 assists, Kymora Johnson recorded her first career double-double.
• Johnson’s 10 assists are also a season high and the most by a Cavalier in a single game this season.
• In her second game back from injury, Camryn Taylor led UVA with 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting. It marked the 15^th 20-point game of Taylor’s career, including third this season.
• The Cavaliers outscored Syracuse 28 to 19 in the fourth quarter.
• Virginia recorded an attendance figure of 6,619, its highest of the season and of the Agugua-Hamilton era.

UP NEXT
The Cavaliers host Miami (16-8, 6-7 ACC) on Thursday (Feb. 22). Tipoff from John Paul Jones Arena is set for 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.