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Monica Wright finished with 21 points, 6 assists and 5 steals against the Vols. |
The Virginia women’s basketball team never let Tennessee completely run away with Sunday’s contest in the John Paul Jones Arena, but the Cavaliers could never climb into the driver’s seat either. That’s because the Volunteers kept slamming the door shut with stingy defense.
In the end, UT held Virginia to 33.8% shooting, including 29.2% from 3-point range, to pull out a 77-63 victory.
“They’re tough and their guard play was a big challenge for us, but I thought we really stepped up and did a good job of defending overall,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. “I am really pleased with Glory [Johnson] and Kelley Cain and her presence and what it means to us when you have someone who can anchor down the paint. Overall, we got a lot of good play from a lot of good players and I’m just glad we could hang on and also have the toughness we had down the stretch.”
Both Summitt and Virginia coach Debbie Ryan praised the atmosphere for the game, seeing it a positive thing for women’s basketball. The No. 6 Vols and No. 12 Cavs played in front of 11,895 fans at the JPJ, which set a new program record for attendance at Virginia. The previous largest crowd numbered 11,174 in 1986 at University Hall.
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Fans packed the JPJ. |
“First of all, [it was a] great environment for a women’s game and this game between Tennessee and Virginia,” Summitt said in her opening statement with the press. “I thought both teams left it all on the court. It was intense; it was hard fought.”
“The environment was absolutely fantastic. I can’t say enough about it. Our town stepped up for us, Charlottesville, as well as the surrounding area,” Ryan said. “They were cheering the entire game. It just goes to show we can attract a good crowd and our team is ready to step up and perform at a really high level every night. This is a really great group of kids.”
The 11,000-plus fans saw UT utilize a blend of 2-3 zone, switching man-to-man defense, and a 1-2-1-1 three-quarter court pressure to slow down the Hoos’ potentially explosive line-up. The strategy forced the Cavaliers into just 10 turnovers, but the hosts remained cold from the floor for long stretches of the game before finishing with the sluggish percentages.
Of course, UVa didn’t help its own cause at times either. The Hoos missed numerous easy lay-ups or short shots in the paint and converted just 8 of 16 free throws. There were also many possessions where the Cavs settled for long jumpers or contested shots when a little more ball movement or better decision-making could have produced better opportunities.
“I just thought the shooting was off today. We took too many jumpers in spots and I kept telling them and telling them every time they went to the basket they either got fouled or they got to the basket. And we were missing lay-ups too, that doesn’t help,” Ryan said. “If you penetrate [their zone], you can get good things; you can get to the line, you can get short little jumpers. Unfortunately, we were settling for long-range jumpshots at times we should’ve taken one more pass, one more penetration point, going off screens.”
Still, Virginia hung tough and rallied from numerous deficits to keep the game close. But a key stretch early in the second half all but doomed the Hoos’ chances of getting a win. After trailing 40-33 at intermission, UVa rapidly closed to 42-39 with a burst of points in the first three minutes of the second half. Monica Wright followed a bucket with a steal to set up Ariana Moorer’s lay-up and Chelsea Shine added her only field goal of the game to cut the margin to three.
On the other end, though, Angie Bjorklund knocked down a long-range 3-pointer while getting fouled to stop the scoring spurt. Bjorkland finished with 24 points on the strength of a 5-for-10 night from 3-point range as she put on an impressive shooting display. That four-point play quickly pushed the lead back to seven points and Taber Spani followed on the next possession to make it a 10-point lead again at 49-39. Virginia could not pull within one basket again for the rest of the game.
“We cut it to three or four and unfortunately we don’t recognize that pressure point in the game and that was a huge pressure point in the game in my opinion. Tennessee took advantage of it and we didn’t,” Ryan said. “We allowed them to score a couple of times in a row and then we came up empty on a couple of possessions and then we were fighting from behind the rest of the way.”
Despite the setback, Ryan knows that playing this game surrounded by the atmosphere of a program-record crowd will help her team in the long run.
“It’ll get better. That’s the great news. They’ve gotten so much better already,” Ryan said. “I told you when we started, I didn’t think we were the 12th-best team in the country and I still don’t think we are yet, but we’re going to be there. We’re definitely going to be there. I can see that.”
