Boxscore Plus/Minus: UVA women’s basketball downs Penn State handily

Plus

A win is a win is a win. With the 89 - 68 win over the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Virginia Cavaliers improve to 9 – 0 on the season. The women last won nine games three seasons ago, and didn’t collect their ninth win until the first weekend in February.

Minus

Last year Penn State and Virginia were also rans in their respective conferences, but this year were undefeated entering the matchup. Unfortunately, somebody had to be shifted to B1G+. Hulu has the B1G network, but not B1G+ and since I have already used both my emails (as well as my wife’s) before registering for B1G, I couldn’t garner the free trial.

Plus

Most of the season this team has performed better in the second half, but in this last ACC vs B1G Challenge game, the Cavaliers jumped out to a first quarter 22 – 7 lead. The Cavs jumped out to an 11 – 2 lead and, after the Lions hit a three pointer, UVA responded with a 9 – 0 run of its own. From the middle of the first quarter into the second quarter, UVA held PSU scoreless for 6:48. This was the first ACC vs B1G Challenge game that Virginia has won since 2012. The women concluded the series in style.

Plus

Mir McLean. She is an absolute beast. She set a career high with 24 points (in just 27 minutes) on 7 – 11 shooting, and she grabbed 13 rebounds. It was her third straight double-double. Her effect on the game reminds me very much of Louisville’s Emily Engstler, who was, you know, a first-round pick last year.

Plus

McLean entered the game converting just 48% of her free throws. Against Penn State, McLean made her first nine free throws before missing a pair late. She’s not going to convert 80% of her free throws, but if she positively regresses back to her 70% career average, it will give just one more boost to an already high-octane offense.

Plus

Virginia won the battle on the boards by having a 41 – 33 rebounding advantage. The ‘Hoos have been punishing teams on the boards all season long, but this game was not a case of bullying smaller opponents. Penn State’s Ali Brigham is 6’4” and Anna Camden is 6’3” and they are both taller than Virginia’s trio of bigs: Camryn Taylor, Sam Brunelle, and London Clarkson.

Plus

Virginia made 33 baskets on the night and assisted on 24 of them. By way of comparison, the men, who beat Michigan behind the stellar play of Reese Beekman and Kihei Clark (arguably the best point guard tandem in the country), only recorded 12 assists on their 27 made buckets.

Plus

Just two and three games ago I was lamenting the poor decision-making of this team in transition. Players getting up a full head of steam on the break and recklessly taking seemingly every ball to the rim. If you look at the highlights below you will see four fast breaks that we were almost incapable of converting two weeks ago. It is readily apparent that these women can apply the lessons that Coach Agugua-Hamilton is teaching them.

Plus

12 turnovers. One game after coughing the ball up 30 times, the Cavs took much better care of the ball reverting to their statistical norm. It’s going to be much harder to win games in the ACC when you’re turning the ball over 30 times. This was much better overall.

Plus

A weird, post-pandemic scheduling quirk had Virginia play Wake Forest in an ACC game 17 days ago. It’s the only ACC game that has been played thus far, and since Virginia won the game, it means they’ve been first in the ACC for 17 days. Given that Louisville and NC State, the class of the ACC the past three years, look like they’ve stepped down a notch, there may not be another team that sits atop the table for 17 straight days. Virginia will be alone for another seven days, until Virginia Tech plays Boston College on December 7^th.

Plus

The men and the women both won their ACC vs B1G Challenge matches and both are still undefeated. Who is going to lose first?

Next Up: Virginia hosts UNCW on Sunday, December 4^th at 2:00pm. The game is on ACCN Extra.