UVA Advances to Second Round of ACC Tournament
Courtesy UVA Sports Media Relations
The Virginia women's basketball team advanced to the second round of the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament after picking up a 77-61 victory over Boston College on Wednesday at the Greensboro Coliseum.
The 12th-seeded Cavaliers (12-18) had four players finish the game with double-digit points, led by junior guard Jocelyn Willoughby who scored a career-high 29 points with 13 rebounds. Junior guard Dominique Toussaint scored 11 points, reaching the 1,000 career point milestone in the game.
Boston College had three players finish in double-figures, led by Emma Guy with 18 points and seven rebounds. Virginia shot 43.6 percent (24 of 55) while Boston College shot 37.9 percent (25 of 66). Virginia held a 38-31 edge in rebounding.
The Cavaliers will take on 5-seed Syracuse on Thursday at 11 a.m. in the second round.
Virginia opened the game on an 11-0 run, but 13th-seeded Boston College (14-16) chipped away at the lead, tying the game on a three from Milan Bolden-Morris with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter and taking the lead on another Bolden-Morris trey 50 seconds later. Jocelyn Willoughby ended an 8-0 BC run after grabbing an offensive rebound off her own three-point miss, but the Cavaliers went into halftime trailing 29-23.
The Cavaliers rallied in the third quarter, with Willoughby scoring seven points in an 8-0 run to narrow a once 12-point deficit. The Cavaliers extended the run out to a 16-2 advantage, with a three-pointer from Dominique Toussaint followed by a trey from Khyasia Caldwell putting the Cavaliers into the lead, 41-40, and the Cavaliers building up a 49-44 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
In the final quarter, Boston College pulled to within two, 53-51, on a jumper by Bolden-Morris with 7:06 remaining, but back-to-back jumpers from Toussaint and Willoughby gave the Cavaliers breathing room. The Cavaliers went 10 of 10 from the free throw line in the final two minutes to build up the double-digit victory.
Junior forward Lisa Jablonowski scored 10 points with eight rebounds, while sophomore guard Khyasia Caldwell scored 12 points with 7 rebounds, tying her career high for rebounds. It was one point shy of matching her career high.
Toussaint became the 36th member of Virginia's 1,000 point club on a free throw with 8:23 remaining in the game, and also had eight assists. To view the complete box score, click here.
Willoughby went 12 of 12 from the free throw line, including going 10 of 10 from the stripe in the fourth quarter. She scored 13 points in the third quarter as the Cavaliers overcame a 12-point deficit with a 24-7 run in the final 7:16 of the period to take a 49-44 lead into the final 10 minutes.
Willoughby has made her last 41 free throw attempts, a streak that goes back to the first quarter of the Miami game on Feb. 3. Willoughby has scored in double figures in each of the last 10 games with seven double-doubles in that same span, has led the team in scoring in nine of the last 10 games and has been the team's leading rebounder in seven of the last eight contests.
Willoughby's previous career high was 26 points, scored in the regular-season meeting against BC. She has scored 55 points this season against the Eagles.
The 42nd annual Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament runs from March 6-10. The Greensboro Coliseum plays host for the 19th time in the last 20 years. Virginia has won three ACC Championships, the last coming in 1993. Virginia has advanced to the quarterfinals in each of the last two seasons.