Play4Kay Holds Special Meaning for Cavalier Guard

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — She spent her middle and high school years in the Chapel Hill, N.C., area, surrounded by Carolina blue. Her mother, Joanne Aluka-White, is the associate head coach on the University of North Carolina women’s basketball team, and the Tar Heels became a second family for Gabby White.

When it came time for White to look for a college program, however, she didn’t view UNC as an attractive option.

“When I was younger, I thought about it,” White, a first-year guard at the University of Virginia, said this week at John Paul Jones Arena. “But as I got older, I was like, ‘I want to keep my home life, my relationship with my mom and coaching separate.’ I didn't want that to mesh and potentially ruin the bond that we have.”

Their bond couldn’t be much stronger. “She’s, like, my best friend,” White said, and that adds another storyline to Virginia’s next game.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, UVA (19-8 overall, 11-5 ACC) hosts No. 21 North Carolina (23-6, 12-4) at JPJ, and this will be the first time White and her mother have been on opposite sides during a game.

“I've always joked with her about this,” White said, smiling. “When we work out and stuff, I'm like, ‘Oh, yeah, I can't wait to play y 'all. It's going to be a good game. It's going to come down to the wire and I'm going to hit a buzzer-beater,’ just joking. So it’s just a blessing to be able to get this opportunity to play against her team. At the end of the day, it's just basketball. We’re both trying to win, so it should be fun.”

This is not just another ACC contest for the Wahoos, and not only because of their rivalry with the Tar Heels. It’s the annual Play4Kay game at JPJ, an event that honors the memory of former NC State head coach Kay Yow while raising awareness for the fight against women’s cancers.

For White and her mother, the game has special meaning. Aluka-White is a breast cancer survivor, and White’s shooting shirt will have her mother’s name on the back.

The occasion is going “to be really heavy,” White said, “for not just me, but for everyone in my life and everyone that's been impacted [by cancer]. I think it'll be a really heartfelt moment, just to appreciate the battle that she went through. It’s just a testament to who she is. She's a fighter. She's a strong woman. So I think the most emotional part for me will be just seeing her out here coaching, even though it's against me, doing the thing that she loves, knowing what she's been through in the past year.”

Her mother doesn’t like being in the spotlight, White said. And so when UNC asked Aluka-White asked her to discuss her fight with cancer and the importance of early detection in a video for social media, White said, her mother initially balked.

“But talking to her, we came to an understanding that it's something that needs to be said,” White said. “She has a voice that needs to be heard, because it’s big. It’s something that she can relate to, she can help me and other young women in the future.”

To know her mom is cancer-free, White said, is “weight lifted off my shoulders. I feel like I can breathe, and I’m just thankful to God that he’s kept her here and she’s here to see another day.”

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024, Coach Jo is a true fighter.

Honored to play for Coach Jo and all women affected by cancer.

For more information, visit https://t.co/xAw7bEZvpx pic.twitter.com/Xb73XY7NuU

— Carolina Women's Basketball (@uncwbb) February 22, 2026

This is a significant game for UVA head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, too. She lost her mother to breast cancer in 2008.

“It’s about playing for something that's bigger than yourself,” said Agugua-Hamilton, who’s been friends with Aluka-White for many years. “We know what this means to everybody. We know that there'll be survivors in the stands. We know that there'll be people that have lost people in the stands, and we just want to emulate their fight and inspire them as much as we can by the way we play, the way that we show our camaraderie, showcase our resiliency, and compete.”

White has a twin brother, Daniel, who plays baseball at Wake Tech Community College in North Carolina. They were born in Florida when their mother was coaching at Florida International University. The family moved to the Tar Heel State after Aluka-White took an assistant coach’s position at Charlotte. After seven seasons with the 49ers, the final two as associate head coach, she joined the UNC staff in 2019

Growing up, White said, she and her brother played a variety of sports. Her favorites were soccer and basketball, but when she enrolled at Seaforth High School, White decided to focus on hoops.

She committed to UVA in July 2024 and arrived on Grounds about 11 months later. The Cavaliers’ only freshman this season, the 5-foot-10 White is averaging 7.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, and she’s third on the team in assists, with 60. She had 22 points, 12 rebounds and six assists last month in Virginia’s triple-overtime win at Wake Forest.

“It’s just been a learning experience,” White said of her first college season. “I came here not expecting a whole lot, just because we had a lot of transfers and returners.  I just wanted to help the team the best I can, and throughout the season I’ve realized that being myself helps the team. I realized that being aggressive on defense, making the right reads on offense and just flying around on the court, that really is what this team needs. So I’ve just really been trying to do that.”

Agugua-Hamilton said No. 3 keeps getting “better and better. She’s a freshman, but she's kind of beyond her years with her physical strength and her athleticism. She's a coach's kid, so she's kind of been around the game. She understands the game, and she's just been a spark for us throughout the whole course of the season. Her ceiling is really high. She’s gonna have a great career here.”

Virginia, which is coming off an upset of then-No. 8 Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center, will play two more games, both at JPJ, before the ACC tournament begins next week in Duluth, Ga.  UVA closes the regular season Sunday afternoon against Virginia Tech.

“At the end of the day, we’ve just got to play our game,” White said. “Of course they're big games, but we can't make them bigger than what they are.”

The Hoos are in a three-way tie for third place in the ACC, and the win over Louisville significantly improved their chances of advancing to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018.

“We’ve been trying to get that big statement win, and that was it,” White said. “I feel like that's just the momentum that we need. We're pushing in the right direction.”

The win over the Cardinals was huge for her program, Agugua-Hamilton acknowledged, “but now it's about North Carolina. We know how good we can be. We've showcased that. People rose to the occasion on our team, and I think our confidence is in a good place. So we just have to kind of ride that wave going into North Carolina.”

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