Johnson's Late Three Sinks Arizona St and advances Cavaliers to Round of 64

For the first time since 2018, UVA Women's basketball made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament Thursday night. A First Four matchup in Iowa against Arizona State was the place and opponent for the 'Hoos.

Kymora Johnson per usual led the Cavaliers with a double-double. She had 17 points and a very impressive 10 rebounds. Johnson also led the team in assists with 5. Behind her was Caitlin Weimar with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Romi Levy scored 10 points, followed by Paris Clark with 9.

24 of Virginia's points came in the paint matching Arizona State. A big key defensively was forcing 16 turnovers, 11 of which were steals. Sa'Myah Smith had a great night defensively with 3 blocks. Weimer had 2 blocks and Clark had one. Virginia did not have the best offensive days, but the defense was big for them, as Weimar mentioned postgame. "I think we really tried our best to just focus on defense, too. When the shots weren't following, we just knew we had to get some stops and just keep on pushing through that and hopefully the offense would come so it's a kind of what we did." Another key team stat for Virginia was the offensive boards. UVA finished with 15, Arizona State had 9.

The game opened very evenly in the first quarter with points coming from both sides. Around the 4-minute mark however, Virginia began to grab a lead stringing together a 7-0 run. That run included 4 points from Caitlin Weimar, three free throws between Gabby White and Paris Clark, and then a second chance layup from Gabby White.

Virginia opened the second half with some fire power after Romi Levy drilled her second three of the night, extending the lead to 8. The lead would stay between 6-9 points the rest of the quarter with scoring from both sides. Breona Hurd would make it 8 going into the half after taking advantage of a Sun Devil turnover and making a basket in transition. Gabby White attempted a three at the buzzer but was rejected by Amaya Williams.

The Sun Devils got the lead down to three early in the second half going on a productive run. Marley Washenitz for ASU scored 5 in one minute, however, the run was shut down by Weimar hitting another shot and a couple of free throws from Kymora Johnson. Gabby Elliott of ASU would hit a couple more free throws late for the Sun Devils, before Heloisa Carrera hit a layup at the buzzer to cut the Cavalier lead down to 4.

The 4th quarter was the most competitive and had both Sun Devil and Cavalier fans leaning in. Every big shot Virginia made to potentially start pulling away, ASU would then hit a bigger shot to cut the lead down more. ASU began to consistently keep the lead below 3 with 1:19 to go after Gabby White hit a huge layup to make the score 50-48. Marley Washenitz then hit the shot of the night for the Sun Devils with 41 seconds to go. Gabby White missed a three, which was then rebounded offensively leading to McKinna Brackens getting the ball to Washenitz to hit a game-tying three. This was the first time the game was tied since it was 12-12 with 4:35 to go in the first quarter. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, Kymora Johnson stepped in the spotlight next. Johnson went on to hit the biggest shot of the night for the Cavaliers 11 seconds later pushing the lead to 3. ASU would cut it down to 1 but after some big free throws, Virginia would come out on top 57-55.

Coach Mox said afterwards, "Really proud of our players. That was a gutsy performance. We had to grind that one out. Arizona State, they're a very physical defensive team. That's what they're known for. They make it hard for you to run anything. They really make it hard for 40 minutes. I was just proud of our players, just to kind of weather the storm through some of the adversity we hit in the game, but we were so urgent at the end, and we just stayed together and really was on one accord." While it was not the best shooting night for either team, Kymora Johnson was not discouraged. "We always tell ourselves next shot. That's what everybody was saying when we come into the huddles," Johnson explained, "I heard it from literally every single player, Coach. We just kept shooting and eventually they fell and when they needed to fall, they fell.

Virginia moves on to the field of 64 where they will meet the Georgia Bulldogs in the 7/10 game in the Sacramento 4 region. Coach Mox was asked about moving forward to play the Bulldogs, "Yeah, Georgia's a physical team, too. They're a defensive team. That's what their coach is known for, Coach Abe. Known her a long time. Have tremendous respect for her and everything she does. It's going to be another physical game. It's going to be another game where we have to be able to run our stuff and set and use screens, execute, out of time-outs, things like that, which today we were kind of thrown off."