The Plus/Minus: Virginia Women’s Basketball Can’t Close Out Miami

Posted by author January 31, 2025 Basketball

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Day Two of the basketball programs’ jaunt down to Coral Gables did not go as well for the women as it had for the men (who won on Wednesday.) Late game woes continue to bedevil Virginia and the NCAA Tournament is getting farther and farther out of reach.

Minus

This is not a particularly good Miami squad as the Hurricanes have suffered losses already to Boston College and Syracuse, the 12th and 16th place ACC teams, respectively. Hanna Cavinder, who was just a 16 minute per game player in her previous season with Miami, is now playing 32 minutes. It’s frustrating to lose to Louisville or Duke down the stretch, but to lose to Miami, this is a gut punch.

Minus

Virginia is on a four-game losing streak. Against Louisville, the team erased a 17-point third quarter deficit and got within three with over three minutes to go. Despite holding the Cardinals scoreless for the final 3:34, Virginia couldn’t score either, and fell 68-65. Against Georgia Tech, the Cavaliers again erased a double-digit fourth quarter deficit, closed to within two points and couldn’t score for the last 3:26 and lost 75-62. Versus NC State, the women held a one-point lead with 1:06 remaining, had the ball for the winning shot, and lost 73-68. Ugh. I can’t look anymore, but it was much the same in the loss to Duke.

On this night, Virginia was up 74-73 with 36 seconds remaining with Miami in possession. Latasha Lattimore got two great blocks down low, but the first was knocked out of bounds and the second was grabbed by Miami’s Cameron Williams. With nine seconds remaining, Natalija Marshall, a fourth-year transfer from Notre Dame who’d never attempted a three-pointer until this year, canned the three for the win.

In previous games, trying to understand this pattern of late game failure, I thought it might be fatigue. But on the night, Casey Valenti-Paea played 10 minutes and Taylor Lauterbach played 12. A decidedly average free throw-shooting team on the season, the Cavaliers were 9/11 from the charity stripe in the fourth period. (Exhaustion kills form faster than anything else.)

Virginia was in position to be able to win all five of these games. If they had, they’d be second in the ACC, as opposed to where they are now, 13th and still not safely into the ACC tournament.

Plus

Latasha Lattimore, in her return to Miami (where she played for two years,) had a fine game. She scored a game-high 25 points, tying her career high, and she grabbed seven rebounds, three of them offensive. After sitting Lattimore for the first two minutes of the second half against Louisville, Coach Agugua-Hamilton held Lattimore out for the game’s first two minutes. I don’t know if it was some sort of punishment, or if maybe Coach Mox felt Lattimore might be overly emotional in her return to Miami, but Lattimore has had two fine games in a row. I worry about coaches who push the buttons of their stars; it may work for a while, but sooner or later it will backfire.

Minus

Hanna Cavinder is a perfectly respectable replacement-level ACC caliber player. Haley Cavinder, on the other hand, can flat out ball. Haley led Miami with 22 points (9/15 shooting and 3/6 from deep,) she dished out 10 assists and had five rebounds. She’s got a motor like Kyle Guy and she simply abused whoever was trying guard her, whether it was Paris Clark, Kymora Johnson or Valenti-Paea. Immediately after Virginia opened up that 15-point lead, Haley hit back-to-back threes sparking a 12-2 Miami run to end the first half. Then in the third quarter, Haley had back-to-back steals off of Johnson and Clark that led to easy fastbreak buckets and the game was a dogfight there on out.

Read More: Luke’s Takeaways

Minus

Paris Clark had a rough night. Literally. She got a black eye for her troubles. But after playing her best game of the year against Louisville, she had a stinker on this night. She’s Virginia’s best defender in the open court, so she drew the short stick as to guarding Haley Cavinder, but Cavinder abused her all game long. Clark had team-high seven assists but she suffered through a 3/12 shooting night.

Minus

I hope that this summer Coach Mox will find an assistant coach who can teach the team how to fast break. Virginia had two fast break points and that’s with a pretty good point guard in Kymora Johnson. Miami, with a fine point guard of their own, had 17 points on the break, and that was the ball game right there. I could probably count on two hands the total number of outlet passes I’ve seen from the Cavaliers this season.

Minus

The three-point shooting really cratered as the game progressed. Virginia opened up a 25-13 lead at the end of the first quarter behind 5/11 shooting from beyond the arc. Basketball is an easier game to play when the threes are falling. The rest of the way? Virginia shot 2/15, and that’s just not going to cut it. For their part, the Hurricanes were a respectable 10/27, or 37%.

Up Next: Virginia travels to Syracuse on Sunday (Groundhog Day,) February 2nd. This team is living a Bill Murray kind of existence, one fourth-quarter collapse after another. Maybe they can break out of the rut against the Orange. Game time is 12:00 noon and the game is on the ACC Network.

UVA Women’s Basketball Falls at Miami 77-74 | Key Takeaways

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Round Robin: Evaluating UVA Women’s Basketball at Halfway Point of Season