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Lyndra Littles bucketed 29 points in Virginia’s loss to Duke Thursday night |
This was not the same Virginia team who beat up on Maryland last Friday night.
Every one of the fans that packed the John Paul Jones Arena to watch the Cavaliers collapse defensively and fall to No. 4 Duke 81-67 Thursday night must have been thinking as much. After the game, coach Debbie Ryan came out and said it.
“We just were not on our game tonight,” Ryan said. “We were not defending penetration. … We weren’t the same team we were last Friday night.”
Virginia’s loss, its 15th straight to Duke dating back to 2000, boiled down to defensive lapses on a young team, Ryan said.
“We just have to get more from some other people defensively, we really do,” she said. “And it’s hard because you’ve got freshmen.”
Despite their shortcomings on defense, the Cavaliers remained in the game until the final minutes. Down eight at the half, the Cavaliers battled back to within three at 47-50 with nine minutes left but the Blue Devils firmly responded with back-to-back jumpers.
“I believe it was down to three with about 11 minutes to go,” Ryan said. “I can’t remember the exact time but I know it was down to three. We could not get a stop. We just could not get a stop.”
As Ryan alluded to, Virginia’s greatest struggles were in the paint, where the Hoos allowed 48 points. Duke’s Jasmine Hopkins and Karima Christmas punished interior defenders with 22 and 18 points respectively.
According to Ryan, the Cavaliers struggles on offense were also tied to the defensive issues.
“We didn’t get some of the things we needed from other parts of our team and basically we did not defend and that’s the only way we score,” Ryan said. “We score only when we defend and rebound, that is our game.”
Not coincidentally, the Cavaliers led out of the opening gate by relying on good defense to hold Duke to 1-of-13 shooting to start the game. The tide turned very quickly for the Cavaliers, however, as they allowed the Blue Devils to shoot 29 of 46 or 63% the rest of the way. The visitors failed, to make a 3-pointer, shooting 0-10 from beyond the arc. Removing the four 3-pointers Duke missed in the second half, Virginia allowed 19 of 25 or 76% on two-point field goals in the second half alone.
Ryan highlighted the contrast between the first portion of the first half and the rest of the game, defensively.
“We came into this game really ready,” she said. “You could see. … We held them to six points until there was like 6:00 to go in the half. We played good defense. We know how to play defense. And it was like the flood-gates opened as soon as I substituted.”
Lyndra Littles, who tallied 29 points in the loss, echoed her coach, saying that they were ready to go when the game started.
“I think we were more than prepared,” she said. “I thought we knew the scouting report. I thought we knew the personnel. It was obvious 13-2, we were up for most of the half and then we kind of laxed up. It just started to crumble from there.”
