Rose's Buzzer-Beater Gives Wofford Stunning Upset Win at Virginia

In the midst of a phenomenal individual performance, Wofford point guard Rachael Rose committed a blunder that threatened to cost her team the game, as she was too deliberate bringing the ball up the floor and was called for a 10-second violation with less than a minute left on the clock. A few moments later, Rose had a chance to atone for her mistake and didn't miss it. 

With the clock dwindling and her team trailing by one point on the road against a Virginia team that should have had no problem walking away with a win, Rose drove towards the basket and got her off-balanced floater to fall off the glass with just four-tenths of a second remaining. UVA failed to get a shot off and the Cavaliers suffered a stunning upset loss to Wofford 71-70 on Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena. 

It required a terrific shot by Rose against solid defense for the Terriers to pull off the improbable victory, but the Cavaliers by no means lost the game solely due to that final play. Virginia did not bring its A-game, both in terms of execution and effort, from the jump. And to no one's surprise, Coach Mox made no attempt to make excuses for the loss. 

"Credit to [Wofford], they deserved to win - we didn't deserve to win," Coach Mox said after the game. "But I also want to say I apologize to our fans because the way we played, the lack of passion that we showed, the lack of energy - it's not the kind of brand of basketball that we want to play. And we will get better." 

The main takeaway from the scouting report on Wofford was that the Terriers like to take threes, more than 24 of them each game. That trend held true early on as Wofford attempted 11 triples in the first quarter alone and made five of them, accounting for each of the team's 15 points. Virginia matched from beyond the arc in the early going, making two of its first three three-pointers, but UVA regressed to the mean after that and made just one of its next 11 threes. 

As usual, the Cavaliers made their money in transition, with the local freshman tandem of Kymora Johnson and Olivia McGhee linking up multiple times for fast-break buckets. Virginia used a 7-0 run to build a lead as large as eight in the first quarter, but Wofford knocked down a couple of threes late to cut the deficit to 16-15 at the end of the opening period. 

Virginia got back on track to start the second, with Cady Pauley and Paris Clark knocking down jumpers. It took the Terriers nearly 12 minutes of game time to score points that didn't come from three-point range, but once they did, it resulted in a 6-0 run to tie the game. The game of runs continued after that, as Virginia rattled off the next eight points by cashing in on a couple of Wofford turnovers. 

UVA went cold and did not make a field goal in the final 3:44 of the half, but still led 37-28 at halftime. After Wofford made five threes in the first quarter, the Terriers made only one three in the second quarter and went nearly four minutes without scoring at one point.

While those numbers would hint at an improved defensive performance from Virginia, Coach Mox disagrees. 

"I thought from beginning to end, our defense was terrible, to be honest," said Coach Mox. "We didn't play our type of defense, to let a point guard get 21, 10, and 9 on us is not acceptable. 11 threes, five in the first quarter - we were just not clicking and we were kind of playing as individuals instead of being on one accord."

Of course, the point guard Coach Mox was referring to was Rachael Rose, who, in addition to the game-winner at the end of the game, nearly recorded a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists. 

Camryn Taylor did not start the game for Virginia and did not play in the first half at all, breaking a streak of 39-consecutive starts. Coach Mox said it was a coach's decision and did not elaborate beyond saying "nobody's perfect." Taylor started in the second half and made an immediate impact, scoring seven points in the third quarter. Virginia was unable to gain separation on the scoreboard, though, and led 52-47 at the end of the third quarter. 

Wofford opened the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run to tie things up and later put together a 7-0 run to take a four-point lead. Virginia battled to tie things up again and, for the final five minutes of the game, the two teams were never separated by more than two points on the scoreboard as a truly back-and-forth ending ensued. 

Paris Clark grabbed an offensive rebound and scored plus a foul, completing a three-point play to give Virginia a 67-66 lead with less than two minutes to go. Wofford responded right away as Maddie Heiss knocked down a corner three, the 11th three of the game for the Terriers, to regain the lead. 

Virginia had multiple chances to go back in front, getting an extra opportunity thanks to the 10-second violation from Rose, but the Cavaliers failed to capitalize. Clark came up with another clutch play, stealing an inbounds pass in the backcourt and dishing to Alexia Smith for a layup that gave UVA a 70-69 lead with 27 seconds remaining. 

Needing one stop to escape with the win, Virginia's defense did its best to force a low-percentage shot, but Rose delivered a prime example of "good defense, better offense" as she got her wild shot to fall off the glass for the game-winner. 

Read more: Plus/Minus: Virginia Women Stumble Late to Wofford

Paris Clark and Olivia McGhee scored 14 points apiece to pace the Cavaliers and Camryn Taylor scored 13 points despite only playing in the second half. Virginia's shooting struggles continued, going 4/23 (17.4%) from beyond the arc. 

UVA did not have its full complement of players available on Saturday. In addition to Mir McLean, who remains out as she recovers from knee surgery, freshman forward Edessa Noyan is currently in concussion protocol and backup point guard Yonta Vaughn missed the game as she "tweaked something". Sam Brunelle exited the game in the second quarter after taking a shot to the head and did not return. Coach Mox did not have an update on her condition after the game. 

"We didn't really come to play. There's a lot of things that affected our team... but I'm not an excuse maker. We didn't play, you know, we didn't compete on our home floor," Coach Mox said. "And that's not acceptable. So we're gonna get better, we have to get better." 

Now 7-3 on the season, Virginia wraps up non-conference play against Fordham on Thursday at 6pm at John Paul Jones Arena. 

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