Virginia Tech couldn’t hang with Virginia in the second half of Thursday’s Commonwealth Clash in Cassell Coliseum, a 73-65 loss for the Hokies.
The rivals were tied at 35 at halftime before the Cavaliers outscored the Hokies 27-12 in the third quarter — the ultimate difference in the game. Tech was better in the fourth quarter (18-11) but couldn’t climb out of its 18-point hole.
“I thought Virginia in that third quarter was the difference in the game,” Tech head coach Megan Duffy said. “Just the way they came out and hit bucket after bucket, even after our timeout, it didn’t really work. We didn’t have enough fight during that stretch. … I thought [the Cavaliers] were a little bit tougher.”
UVa (11-7, 3-3 ACC) started the game in a 1-2-2 zone on the defensive end, which worked well in its close loss to then-No. 14 Duke on Sunday, but Tech (12-5, 3-3) exploited it early. As a result, the Cavaliers switched to man, and the Hokies couldn’t handle the heat.
Similar to its defeat two weeks ago to Florida State, Tech was taken out of rhythm by the pressure, which UVa extended 94 feet. It was OK in the first half with just six miscues, but the Cavaliers ramped things up out of the locker room. It overwhelmed the Hokies, who gave the ball away eight times in the third quarter.
“We just came out with urgency,” UVa head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “We picked up the pace defensively, pressured the ball more, we’re able to create turnovers and get some offense from our defense. … We were able to match up, play them one-on-one and just really pressure the ball and try and take them out of their sets a little bit.”
On top of the giveaways, Tech wasn’t sharp offensively. It was just 4-of-13 from the field in the period and only strung back-to-back baskets together once. Meanwhile, Virginia was methodical at a 12-of-18 clip.
“I think that they got some easy buckets at the beginning of the third quarter,” Tech guard Matilda Ekh said, “which gave them some confidence, and we kind of lost some confidence and that kind of gave them the momentum to pressure us. And we just couldn’t figure out how to handle the pressure and change the course of the game.”
UVa attacked through 6-foot-4 forward Latasha Lattimore, and the Hokies didn’t have an answer for her. Though her 4-of-13 first half wasn’t very efficient, her overall numbers — she posted 10 points and eight rebounds — were, and they only improved as the game went on. In the second half, she was terrific and made things look easy, knocking down seven of her 10 looks. In all, she had 24 points and 15 boards.
What’s more, the Toronto, Ontario, product nearly outscored Tech on her own in the third period with 10 points and six rebounds.
“She had probably one of her best games of the season,” Duffy said of Lattimore. “I just thought she was relentless on her rebounding. … She just has a knack to go after the ball. I thought she finished well. We knew she’d probably get to her right hand and we worked on it, but just didn’t have enough to slow her down and stop her.”
UVa finished with 42 points in the paint, a large chunk of which came from Lattimore, but some others stepped up. Breona Hurd chipped in 11 points while Edessa Noyan added six.
Even though the Hokies defended Cavaliers point guard Kymora Johnson pretty well — the team’s leading scorer, she finished with 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting and had five turnovers — UVa made them pay everywhere else.
“That’s what it takes in conference play,” Duffy said. “Even if you contain [Johnson] a little bit, you need other people to step up, and I thought Uva had a couple kids who did that. That was the difference. And that’s what we talk about.
“If one of our starters is off a little bit, who else can step up and get a bucket? Especially in rivalry games, it comes down to those little chess matches and I think they won that battle today.”
Nothing seemed to go right for the Hokies, and even in the few moments when they were able to string together a few things, they still struggled to execute. With 4:55 remaining in the third quarter, they had scored on back-to-back possessions while forcing two consecutive UVa turnovers. They couldn’t capitalize, though, as Carleigh Wenzel’s pass up to Mackenzie Nelson on the break sailed out of bounds.
“I thought the ball was hitting our hands and going out of bounds,” Duffy said. “We made a run, got a great steal, we kicked it up in transition and the passes weren’t there, so it’s hard because you’re doing the right thing; you just have to execute a little bit better. In a game like this, two, four, six points can be the difference in those stretches where another team is making a run.”
Tech’s lone bright spot down the stretch was its fourth-quarter performance, but the game was essentially over by that point. Even though it shot 8-of-13 and cut the margin to eight with Lani White’s 3-pointer right before the buzzer, it didn’t make a difference.
The Cavaliers were simply better, and more than anything, they were tougher and seemed like they wanted it more. They played with an intensity that the Hokies struggled to match until it was too late.
For the second time this year (along with the FSU loss), Tech just seemed out of it. Duffy called timeout 2:13 into the third quarter to hit the reset button but it didn’t work. With 2:39 remaining in the period, she called another one after the Cavaliers went up 13. Tech immediately turned it over out of the stoppage, and in the blink of an eye, UVa was up 18.
The Hokies’ defense, which was solid in late-game situations over the last two weeks, was almost non-existent for stretches, particularly against Lattimore. She helped the Cavaliers win the rebounding battle 41-31, which included 14 offensive boards, and single-handedly kept Tech at arm’s length for nearly the entire second half.
“I honestly think we’ve just got to be tougher,” Ekh said. “They weren’t doing anything crazy that we weren’t prepared for. They were running the sets we’ve been working against all week. I mean, we know the personnel, so at some point, I think we’ve just got to get tougher and stop what they’re doing.”
Tech will see the Cavaliers again on Feb. 9 in Charlottesville, but for now, it has an opportunity to flush this result on Sunday against a talented Louisville team (4 p.m. ET, ACCN) that’s received votes in the AP Poll. The Cardinals beat Syracuse by 10 on Thursday night.
Box Score: Virginia 73, Virginia Tech 65
Thoughts from #Hokies' 73-65 loss to UVa: pic.twitter.com/hfbf8wVQBh
— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) January 17, 2025