Virginia guard Jillian Brown came up with the biggest stop of the night on Georgia Tech’s leading scorer Talayah Walker to clinch a 61-59 victory on the road in Atlanta.
The Cavaliers took the lead two minutes into the second quarter on Tabitha Amaze layup and held on for the next 28 minutes to remain undefeated in conference play. “Winning on the road in this conference isn’t easy,” explained Cavaliers Head Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton. “It’s something that we’ve struggled with before.”
Virginia was able to build a five point lead going into the half with solid interior defense and poor shooting by the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech shot a dismal 18.8% from the field in the first half. Forward Caitlin Weimar had six of the Cavaliers nine blocked shots in the first half.
“I thought our bigs stepped up,” said Agugua-Hamilton. “Tabbie stepped up, Caitlin stepped up.” The Cavs front line collected 13 blocks, two shy of the team record set nearly 29 years ago against -Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech Head Coach Karen Blair acknowledged Virginia’s size inside contributed to the defense they were able to play in the post. “Their length definitely affected us in the paint because that’s one area that we’ve been able to be really consistent is get a lot of paint points and you know it was impactful,” said Blair. “A lot of times when our guards were trying to turn the corner they were going against 6’4” and you know, so that that is a tough matchup.”
Georgia Tech’s defense kept the game from getting out of hand. They scored seven points off turnovers. The Yellow Jackets subs Jada Crawshaw and Catherine Alben chipped in 10 of the 20 third quarter points to help outscore the Cavs’ bench 12-3. Tech had their best field goal percentage (46.7%) of the game in the third.
Game Highlights via UVA Sports
Blair praised Walker for not allowing her defense to suffer while battling inconsistent shooting. “A lot of times you see with players is when the ball doesn’t go in then you don’t play defense,” said Blair. “She didn’t do that and to me that’s a sign of an elite level player. The Yellow Jackets scoring leader scored six of her game high 21 points in the final quarter.
Walker’s three pointer with 1:45 remaining in the game cut the Cavs lead to two. The shift in momentum was brimming. Virginia couldn’t buy a basket down the stretch. Amanze’s jump shot landed in the hands of Alben and the senior guard was off to the races. Three steps into the break, Alben stumbled and lost the ball to UVA guard Kymora Johnson.
The quick-thinking guard fouled Johnson immediately to send her to the line where the Cavaliers had struggled all night. It didn’t pan out that way as the junior knocked down both shots to extend the lead back to four.
After Brianna Turnage cut the lead to a basket once more on a moderately contested layup in the lane, the Yellow Jackets got the ball back with 14 seconds remaining.
Everyone knew who was getting the ball. Alben passed the ball to Walker on her favorite spot on the block. Guarded by Brown, who had blocked Walker’s layup attempt 48 seconds prior, Walker dribbled left and spun back right. Brown was right there to deflect and catch the ball to seal the win for the Cavs.
Blair offered this on the final play, “you have to adjust to how they’re defending certain things and we just had a little mistiming on that last play.”
Virginia’s Agugua-Hamilton was happy but not satisfied with the win. Suggesting her squad, even at 13-3 (5-0) has more work to do. “I’m just really happy that we were able to persevere through adversity, get over the hump, but we have to make sure that we learn, and we have to be able to win close games, said Agugua-Hamilton.