Kymora Johnson had 29 points and five assists Sunday as Virginia defeated Notre Dame 81-70 before 5,223 at John Paul Jones Arena. The junior Charlottesville native has gotten to 1,523 career points.
The Cavaliers celebrated National Girls and Women in Sports Day and honored their all-time most successful coach, Debbie Ryan, at halftime.
The Cavaliers (17-7, 9-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) gave their iffy NCAA Tournament hopes a boost; Friday morning, they were listed as the “first team out” of the 68-team field by ESPN’s Charlie Creme. The Fighting Irish (15-9, 7-6), though more securely in the field, are struggling more than usual this season.
UVA outscored Notre Dame 48-28 in the middle quarters to go ahead 65-46.
Paris Clark had 15 points and eight rebounds for the Cavaliers, and Tabitha Amanze had 14 points, three rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks.
Irish star guard Hannah Hidalgo had 24 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and Iyana Moore added 17 points, five rebounds and four assists.
NC State 82, Virginia Tech 62: The Hokies (18-6, 8-4 ACC), also an NCAA bubble team, couldn’t handle the Wolfpack (16-7, 9-3) before 4,454 at Cassell Coliseum. Khamil Pierre had 25 points and 12 rebounds for NC State, and Zoe Brooks had 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and six steals.
Virginia Tech led 19-12 with 2:19 left in the first quarter, but NC State dominated the rest of the half to move ahead 44-27 and wasn’t threatened in the second half.
Carleigh Wenzel led the Hokies with 22 points, her eighth straight double-digit game. Virginia Tech’s Kilah Freelon, who played three seasons for Texas Tech, had 14 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.
Elon 75, William & Mary 52: The Tribe (12-10, 5-6 Coastal Athletic Association), led by Dynasti Pierce’s eight points and eight rebounds, hit an offensive drought against the Phoenix (11-12, 6-5) in North Carolina. W&M shot 32% (18 of 57) and committed 23 turnovers.
Tamia Watkins paced the Phoenix with 16 points and 10 rebounds. They essentially won the game in the first half, outscoring W&M 38-19.
Hofstra 75, Hampton 59: Nevaeh Brown paced four Hofstra players in double figures with 17 points as the Pride (4-18, 2-9 Coastal Athletic Association) defeated the Pirates (9-14, 3-8) in Hempstead, New York.
For Hampton, Kayla Lezama had 17 points and Taylor Gibson scored a season-high 14 and equaled her season high with six rebounds.
Hofstra surged in the first half, going ahead 40-18 before Hampton closed the gap to 42-25 by halftime. The Pirates shot 2 of 13 in the second quarter.
The Pirates pulled to 55-46, only to see a 10-3 Hofstra run essentially ensure their demise.
James Madison 71, Massachusetts 57: Peyton McDaniel tied her season high of 29 points and grabbed 11 for the visiting Dukes (18-8), who outrebounded UMass 46-26 in a MAC-SBC Challenge game and sank 10 of 24 3-point tries.
Princess High alumna Zakiya Stephenson had nine points and a game-high six assists for JMU. It was the first home defeat of the season for UMass (16-5).
Regent 71, Warren Wilson 70: The Royals (4-15) put five players in double digits in Swannanoa, North Carolina, as they evened their Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference record. Regent held the Owls (2-18, 0-1) to 3-of-25 3-point shooting.
Amara Groth had 17 points and seven rebounds, Kennedy Shipman had 15 points and eight rebounds, Eliza Entzminger had 14 points and eight rebounds, Mikaylah Telfer had 13 points and 14 rebounds, and My’Angel Carter had 10 points and eight rebounds.
Bryant & Stratton 78, Cape Fear Community College 56: Sian Lewin had 31 points, four assists and four blocks as the Bobcats (19-2, 14-1 conference), ranked 18th in National Junior College Athletic Association Division II, won in North Carolina for the second time in as many days.
Myla Parker had 16 points and 10 rebounds, Hailey Harris had 13 points and six rebounds, and Janiyaha Pickett had five points, 10 assists and three steals. The Bobcats led 22-6 after one quarter and 45-22 at the half.
Patrick & Henry Community College 50, Tidewater Community College 41: The inaugural Storm squad (3-10) lost in the Martinsville area.
No. 2 UCLA 69, No. 8 Michigan 66: Lauren Betts had 16 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and three blocks for the Bruins (23-1, 13-0 Big Ten) in Ann Arbor. UCLA has won 17 games in a row.
The Wolverines (20-4, 11-2) trailed by 11 points with less than two minutes left. They rallied for a chance to tie the game, but Syla Swords shot an airball on a 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds left.
No. 3 South Carolina 93, No. 19 Tennessee 50: Ta’Niya Latson scored 21 points, Joyce Edwards added 20 and the host Gamecocks (24-2, 10-1 Southeastern Conference) handed Tennessee (15-6, 7-2) its biggest margin of defeat in program history.
Madina Okot had 10 points and 15 rebounds for South Carolna. Talaysia Cooper led Tennessee with 17 points.
No. 5 LSU 77, Auburn 44: ZaKiyah Johnson scored 16 points, Mikaylah Williams added 12 and LSU (22-3, 8-3 SEC) held the hosts (13-12, 2-9) to 25% shooting from the field and 14.3% from 3-point range. Flau’jae Johnson, LSU’s leading scorer, finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Harissoum Coulibaly had 13 points and four assists for Auburn, which lost its sixth in a row under former Norfolk State coach Larry Vickers after a strong non-SEC start.
No. 6 Louisville 84, Syracuse 65: Laura Ziegler scored 22 points for the visiting Cardinals (22-4, 12-1 ACC), who were coming off a one-point loss to Duke that snapped a 14-game winning streak. They held the Orange (19-5, 9-4) without a field goal in the first quarter and built the lead to 28-6.
No. 9 Ohio State 80, Oregon 64: Elsa Lemmila scored a career-high 23 points for the visiting Buckeyes (22-3, 11-2 Big Ten), who won their fourth consecutive game by defeating the Ducks (18-8, 6-7). Kennedy Cambridge added 20 points, hitting five 3-pointers, and her sister Jaloni Cambridge scored 19 to surpass 1,000 points in her career.
