No. 10 Seed UVA Takes on No. 7 Seed Georgia in NCAA First Round Saturday

IOWA CITY, Iowa. – The 10th-seeded Virginia women’s basketball team (20-11) is set to take on seventh-seeded Georgia (22-9) in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship on Saturday (March 21). Tipoff from Carver-Hawkeye Arena is set for 1:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

The winner of Saturday’s first-round game will advance to take on either second-seeded No. 7 Iowa (26-6) or 15th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in the second round Monday (March 23). Tip time at television designation are still to be announced.  

Broadcast Information

• Saturday’s game will air on ESPN2
• Virginia’s NCAA Tournament games will also be broadcast on WINA (98.9-FM/1070-AM), VirginiaSports.com and the Virginia Spots mobile app
• Live statistics will be provided through StatBroadcast, which can be accessed on VirginiaSports.com.

For Openers

• In her NCAA Tournament debut, Kymora Johnson became the only UVA player this century to record 10+ pts, 10 reb, 5 ast in an NCAA Tournament game
• She joins Dawn Staley (1989, 1991), and DeMya Walker (1997) as the only players to accomplish the feat.
• Virginia has recorded 20 wins in a season for the first time since the 2016-17 season
• UVA recorded 11 ACC wins in a season for the first time since 1999-00
• Virginia is averaging 74.7 points per game and limiting opposition to 64.0 ppg.
• The Cavaliers lead NCAA Division I with 6.6 blocks per game.
• UVA has broken the program record for blocks in a season (206) for the second consecutive season.
• UVA ranks No. 21 in NCAA Division I and No. 3 in the ACC with 16.9 assists per game.
• Virginia is in its 53rd season of women’s basketball sporting a 1,013-575 (.638) record.

UVA-Georgia Connections

• Virginia Director of Athletics, Carla Williams, was an All-SEC guard at Georgia from 1986-89. She ranks 37th in career scoring at Georgia with 1,115 points (9.4 ppg)
• Williams and Katie Abrahamson-Henderson were teammates at Georgia from 1986-87.
• Williams was an assistant coach on Hall of Fame coach Andy Landers’ staff from 1991-96, including teams that reached the 1995 and 1996 Final Fours, with an NCAA runner-up finish in 1996, and won the 1991 and 1996 SEC Championships.
• Williams was an assistant coach on Hall of Fame coach Andy Landers’ staff from 1991-96, including teams that reached the 1995 and 1996 Final Fours, with an NCAA runner-up finish in 1996, and won the 1991 and 1996 SEC Championships.
• Prior to coming to Virginia, Williams served as an athletics administrator at the University of Georgia for 13 years and was named deputy director of athletics in 2015. She served as UGA’s assistant director of compliance from 1996-97 before continuing her ascent up the administrative ranks at Florida State, Vanderbilt and Georgia.
• Coach Agugua-Hamilton and Coach Abrahamson-Henderson were on the same coaching staff at Indiana from 2009-2010
• The two coaches each had separate stints on staff at Michigan State
• Both coaches began their head coaching careers at Missouri State
• Georgia sophomore forward, Mia Woolfolk, is a native of Midlothian, Va. and the sister of Jay Woolfolk a former quarterback and starting pitcher for the UVA football and baseball programs (2022-2025).

Look Hoos Dancing

• The Cavaliers are making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2018, as well as its first under head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton
• Virginia owns a 35-25 record in the NCAA Tournament
• UVA appeared in the tournament every year from 1984-2003, including a run of three consecutive Final Fours from 1990-92.
• Virginia recorded its first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2018, a 68-62 upset win over seventh-seeded California.
• Seven Cavalier players have a combined 19 games of NCAA tournament experience with 11 combined wins ahead of the 2026 tournament.
• Agugua-Hamilton has made a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances as a head coach at Missouri State (2021, 2022) including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2021.
• In her first season at Missouri State, Agugua-Hamilton had her team positioned to make the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Series History: Round of 64 – Georgia

• Virginia is 11-7 in first round games and has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen 12 times in program history.
• The Cavaliers are 3-3 in the all-time series with Georgia Virginia holds a +14 score differential in the series
• Neither team has won back-to-back games in the all-time series
• Saturday’s game will mark the first time the teams have faced off in the NCAA Tournament, and their first meeting on a neutral court.
• The Bulldogs won the last meeting between the teams 64-61 on Nov. 16 2017 at John Paul Jones Arena.
• Virginia’s all-time leading scorer, Monica Wright, scored her 2,000th career point against Georgia (12/20/09). Wright is one of three players in program history to score 2,000 pts (Dawn Staley, Heather Burge)

 Johnson’s Statistical Milestones

• This season, Johnson has connected on 90 three-pointers to set a single-season program record.
• She has made 218 career three-pointers chasing Tora Suber’s program record of 220.
• Johnson set a UVA single-game record with 10 three pointers in a win over Winthrop (Dec. 20)
• She ranks No. 10 in NCAA Division I and leads the ACC with 2.90 three-pointers per game this season
• Johnson surpassed 1,600 career points in her 93rd career game in the regular season finale.
• She ranks 10th in program history with 1,651 points.
• Johnson became the fourth Division I player this century to reach at least 1,600 career points, and 500 career assists through 93 games joining Caitlin Clark (Iowa), Sabrina Ionescu (Oregon) and Dequesha McClanahan (Winthrop).
• She is one of three players in NCAA DI averaging at least 19 points and 5.5 assists per game
• In 2025, Johnson became one of just three players in program history to record a triple double (20pts, 11reb, 11ast at Pitt).
• The only other Cavaliers to accomplish the feat are Dawn Staley and Romi Levy.

Playoff Sa’Myah…

• In 2024-25, Sa’Myah Smith was sensational in the NCAA Tournament averaging 13.8 points and 10.25 rebounds while shooting the ball at a 63.9 percent clip
• She scored a career-high 21 points while pulling down 11 rebounds in a win over NC State in the Sweet 16 last season
• Smith has recorded a pair of 20-pt performances in the NCAA tournament and three total games in double figures, each of which took place in the 2025 tournament.
• Smith helped lead LSU to an elite eight appearance in 2025 starting all four games for the Tigers
• As a freshman in 2023, Smith came off the bench to help the Tigers claim the NCAA title
• In two NCAA tournaments at LSU, Smith averaged 6.7 pts and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting the ball at a 61.7 percent clip

Block Party

• Virginia leads NCAA Division I with 6.6 blocks per game and is on track to be the second highest of any ACC team in the last 20 seasons, behind only the 2020-21 Syracuse squad (7.04).
• The Cavaliers have blocked at least 10 shots in four different games this season (Georgia Tech, FSU, Howard, UMES, and Morgan St.)
• Nine different Cavaliers are up to double-figures in blocks on the season, the most of any team in NCAA Division I
• Tabitha Amanze leads Virginia with 43 blocks on the season.

Crash the Glass

• The Cavaliers are 12th in NCAA Division I and lead the ACC in rebounding margin with a mark of 9.3
• The highest average rebound differential by any Virginia team this century was +6.5 in 2008-09.
• Virginia ranks second in the ACC with 14.6 offensive rebounds per game
• Amanze leads the team with 82 offensive boards on the season while Weimar has pulled down 78.

Dropping Dimes

• Virginia ranks No. 27 in NCAA Division I and No. 3 in the ACC with 16.9 assists per game as a team.
• The Cavaliers have recorded 20+ assists on eight occasions this season and posted 18+ assists 14 times as a team.
• Kymora Johnson ranks No. 15 in Division I and leads the ACC averaging 5.9 assists per game.
• With 540 career assists, Johnson ranks fourth in program history. She trails Donna Holt (561) for fourth on the list
• She recorded a season-high 11 assists against FSU.

Elite Bench Production

• Caitlin Weimar has provided crucial production off the bench this season for UVA
• Weimar ranks third among six total ACC players to record multiple 20-point games off the bench this season (25 pts at WF, 20 pts vs Pitt)
• Gabby White logged career highs in points (22), rebounds (12) and assists (6) off the bench in a triple-overtime victory at Wake Forest.
• The Cavaliers scored a season-high 56 points off the bench at Wake Forest
• Among ACC players with 10 or less starts this season, Weimar ranks first with 1.3 blocks per game, and third with 2.6 offensive rebounds per game and second with 5.9 total rebounds per game.