Tina Thompson’s postgame remarks needed to wait.

The fourth-year Virginia coach had to prioritize pushing a point across during a meeting with her team first.

“I’m really disappointed with our effort tonight,” Thompson said in front of the two reporters who were left at John Paul Jones Arena nearly an hour and a half following the conclusion of the Cavaliers’ 71-42 blowout loss to rival Virginia Tech on Thursday.

It was UVa’s eighth straight loss and the most lopsided setback for the Hoos (3-14, 0-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) in the history of their longstanding Commonwealth Clash rivalry with the Hokies (15-5, 7-2 ACC).

“As hard as we work every day,” she said, “there is no excuse for not competing consistently and I take full responsibility for that. I am responsible for how we show up as a team and how we compete from start to finish of the game. I’ve made excuses just a little bit for why we show up the way we show up, but we’re not doing that anymore.”


Thompson said she’s not a yeller, so she didn’t scream at her players. Instead, according to Thompson, the former four-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist during her playing days, they had a meaningful, lengthy discussion about what needs to change in order to push the program in the right direction.

“It was an honest conversation,” Thompson said, “and after an outing like that, there are some things you have to be honest about and you have to confront. So, it was an honest conversation.”

Tech controlled the game mostly from beginning to end. The Hokies’ 14-1 run to close the first quarter put them ahead 20-10.

In the third quarter, 3-point shooting from Tech guards Georgia Amoore and Aisha Sheppard demoralized the Cavaliers for good. Virginia Tech sank six 3s in the third quarter with three of those coming from Amoore, who finished with a game-best 21 points.

Combining Amoore’s success from deep with the 11 points the Hokies scored off of six UVa turnovers in that third stanza, they were able to finish the quarter on a 21-6 run and gain an advantage that had ballooned to 22 points.


“That’s been our Achilles heel all season,” Thompson said. “We have kind of these short stints or droughts where we’re giving up plays and we don’t stop the outpour or shots or execute our schemes, and then the game gets away from us. And when you dig yourself a hole like that, it’s just really, really tough to climb out of it.”

The game was only competitive in its opening minutes and in the second quarter when UVa was sparked by its newest player, Mir McLean, who wasn’t bothered by the short notice that she’d actually play on Thursday.

UVa found out only a few hours before its tipoff against Tech that McLean, a mid-year transfer from national power Connecticut, had been granted a waiver by the NCAA and was immediately eligible for the bout against the Hokies. She appeared in three games for UConn during the fall semester.

And McLean was excellent off the bench in her UVa debut, showing no hesitation when driving the lane or taking a jumper. She tallied 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go along with eight rebounds.

“She has an element that everyone needs,” Tech coach Kenny Brooks said of McLean. “She’s an athlete and she hit a 3 against us tonight … and she has tremendous value. We were just surprised she was in the game.”

Unfortunately for the Hoos, she was the lone bright spot in the losing effort, and the former McDonald’s All-American didn’t check in until the Hokies had already started to pull away from the Cavaliers late in the first quarter.

On the Hokies’ 14-1 initial widening run, they got second-chance opportunities – scoring six second-chance points off of four offensive boards in the first 10 minutes – while Amoore started to get comfortable from the field. She drilled a mid-range jumper and a 3 before senior guard Kayana Traylor made a layup to end the quarter’s scoring.

Ahead of the first quarter ending, McLean checked in and then in the second quarter her energy on offense pushed the game to its most competitive moments.


Her first points as a member of the Cavaliers came on a jumper with 9:20 to play before halftime. She’d add a 3 and a layup, with the layup cutting Tech’s advantage to six points – at 25-19 – but that’s as close as UVa would get the rest of the way.

“First game, just a few practices in,” Thompson said, “[McLean] left it all out there and that’s the attitude you have to have to be competitive in this conference. So, if I were her teammates, I’d use that as an example.”

Thompson said UConn was very helpful to UVa in its effort to get McLean eligible right away.

“She was really excited,” Thompson said, “as you saw today. And in just a short period of time, she is a competitive player and plays with a lot of energy and excitement.”

Virginia Tech 71, Virginia 42


Key player: Mir McLean tallied 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go along with eight rebounds in her UVa debut.