With just under 20 seconds remaining on Sunday afternoon, Paris Clark attacked the left elbow with a strong drive, drawing in the Louisville defense. Aside from guard Reyna Scott, who was glued to Kymora Johnson on the left wing, the other four Cardinal defenders each collapsed into the paint.
With room to breathe in the opposite corner, Romi Levy floated up toward the wing, where Clark found her wide open. Without hesitation, the graduate transfer let it fly and canned a go-ahead 3-pointer with 12.2
seconds on the clock.
The eighth-ranked Cardinals, who entered the contest with a near-perfect 14-1 record against ACC competition, had erased Virginia’s 11-point halftime lead, but their comeback would go no further. Levy’s triple, which gave the ’Hoos a 74-72 lead inside the KFC Yum! Center in Downtown Louisville, Kentucky, marked the final basket of the afternoon and secured the biggest win of the season for UVA, an upset which has the potential to propel the program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
Virginia, which improved to 19-8 overall with Sunday’s win, earned its 11th conference victory (its most in a season since 1999-2000) while keeping itself in the race for a double-bye in the ACC Tournament. With just two regular-season games yet to play, the Cavaliers — now winners of four of their past five contests — sit in a three-way tie for fourth place in the conference standings along with Syracuse and NC State.
“That took everybody,” Coach Mox said to a celebratory Cavaliers’ locker room after the win. “We were together … [and] we took their confidence from the beginning.”
Levy, who finished with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, was the driving force behind Virginia’s early success. She had 10 first-half points as the ’Hoos shot 55.6% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes to take a 41-30 lead into the break.
The Cavaliers also delivered an early defensive gem, limiting Louisville to just 26.5% shooting in the first half. But the Cardinals, who boast the nation’s seventh-most-efficient offense, according to BartTorvik.com, would begin to find their rhythm down the stretch. After outscoring the ’Hoos by four points in the third quarter, Louisville finally retook the lead, 69-68, with 1:33 remaining in the fourth.
Johnson, however, who led the team with 16 points on the afternoon, would not let the opportunity slip through Virginia’s fingers. The junior drilled her second 3-pointer of the fourth quarter with 1:08 to play, giving the ’Hoos a 71-69 lead. Louisville would knock down three free throws over its next two possessions to retake the lead, setting the stage for Levy’s heroics.
“I’m just so proud of our group,” Coach Mox said in her postgame press conference. “I was emotional after the game, because my message before the game was ‘we know’ — like we know how good we are. We know the kind of adversity we’ve been through this year, individually and as a team. We know how hard we work. We know we’re coming together at the right time, and people don’t know that. We knew that nobody … thought we were going to win this game, but we knew.”
After its head-turning upset on Sunday, UVA’s third win over a top-10 opponent in the Coach Mox era, the college basketball world knows what the ’Hoos are capable of now. While Virginia often relies on Johnson, who’s on pace for another First Team All-ACC selection this season, to carry the load offensively, a host of ’Hoos stepped up to help earn a balanced statement win. Levy and Johnson were two of five Cavaliers to score at least nine points, along with Clark (14), Sa’Myah Smith (9), and Tabitha Amanze (9).
Clark, who has dealt with inconsistency throughout her senior campaign, was instrumental. Along with going 5-for-9 from the field, Clark led the team with eight assists and pulled down six rebounds. Meanwhile, Amanze dominated in the paint, grabbing 11 rebounds (including six crucial offensive boards) and swatting three shots on the defensive end.
Overall, the ’Hoos outscored Louisville 38-22 in the paint and matched one of the conference’s best shooting teams with eight made 3-pointers to earn a much-needed signature win to stamp at the top of their resume. Virginia, which is now 2-5 in Quad 1 opportunities, rose to 36th in the NET after the victory and even earned six votes in this week’s AP Poll, released Monday afternoon.
On the bracket bubble, UVA was already among ESPN’s ‘Last Four In’ heading into the weekend, thanks to a big road win over Stanford last Sunday, but the victory over Louisville will undoubtedly make Virginia’s position in the tournament picture much safer. The ’Hoos haven’t yet achieved ‘lock’ status to make the NCAA Tournament, but Virginia is very much on the verge of punching its first ticket to the Big Dance since 2018 if it can keep stacking wins.
The journey for these ’Hoos, however, is just beginning. With a pair of home games on the docket this week — a Thursday night showdown against No. 22 North Carolina and a Sunday afternoon rematch against Virginia Tech — Virginia can’t rest on its laurels. For UVA, a program that lives by the mantra “Grind Now, Shine Later,” the time to shine has come. Now, it’s time to finish the job.
