Virginia Falls to Louisville 68-65 at Home

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For the second consecutive outing, the Cavaliers pulled back within a single possession after trailing by nearly 20 points. Virginia (11-10, 3-6 ACC) was suffered a 68-65 defeat to Louisville on Sunday afternoon (Jan. 26) at John Paul Jones Arena.  

Paris Clark (19 pts, 7 reb, 3 stl, 3 blk) turned in her best performance of the season matching career-high totals in points, made field goals and blocks as well as a season-high on the glass. Latasha Lattimore (15 pts, 6-7 FG, 5 reb) and Kymora Johnson (12 pts, 8 ast, 3 reb) rounded out three Virginia players scoring in double figures.  

How It Happened
Virginia fell behind early as the Cavaliers were outscored 25-12 in the first quarter. UVA shot the ball at a 46-percent clip (6-13), but the quarter was dominated by Louisville’s Jayda Curry who scored 14 first-quarter points on 4-for-7 shooting. All four of Curry’s makes came from three-point range.  

In the second, Louisville pushed its lead to the largest of the half at 17 [44-17] with just seconds to go before the break. Virginia was outscored 19-17 in the quarter and entered halftime trailing 44-29. Paris Clark led the Cavaliers after the opening two quarters scoring eight of her 19 points while collecting four rebounds. 

In the third, Clark and Latasha Lattimore combined to score 14 of Virginia’s 16 points. The Cavaliers were outscored by a pair in the period and entered the final quarter trailing by its largest deficit of the game 62-45.  

In the fourth, the Cavaliers held Louisville to just six points while scoring 20 of their own. Virginia battled all the way back to pull within just three points [63-66] with just over four minutes remaining in the game. In the final five minutes, Virginia forced Louisville into eight consecutive misses but was unable to find the tying basket.  

Game Notes 

• Double-figure scorers: Clark (19), Lattimore (15), Johnson (12) 

• Louisville’s 25 first-quarter points are the most of any UVA opponent this season 

• The Cardinals 44 first-half points the most of any UVA opponent this season 

• Paris Clark logged a career-high 19 points, 9 FGM, and 3 blocks 

• Clark logged a season-high 7 rebounds 

• The Cavaliers combined for 11 blocks, the team’s highest total since a road win over Florida St. (1/19/2023) 

• The Cavaliers shot 61-percent (8-13) from the field in the second quarter. This is the sixth quarter that they have done that this season. 

• UVA had 52 points in the paint, the most since the season opener against American (11/4/24) 

• The Cavaliers held Louisville to 6 points in the 4th quarter. This is only the 2nd time since 1/22/23 that the Cardinals have been held to 6 points in a quarter.  

• The Cavaliers held an opponent to single digits in a quarter for the third time this season in ACC play. 

From Head Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton:
Another disappointing loss. Frustrated with our start, with our togetherness today, and the rebounding. We obviously gave up 20 offensive rebounds, which is unheard of, and that’s big. We didn’t execute at the end of the game. That’s big, but I think it’s the whole 40 minutes at this point, the last two games, we were just not on one accord. 

I mean credit to Louisville. They played hard, they played physical, and they got what they came here to get. We need to get that will to win from all five players on the court. 

Up Next:
The Cavaliers return to action on Thursday (Jan. 30) when they travel to Miami. Tipoff at Watsco Center is set for 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra (ACCNX).