After suffering a tough 79-64 loss against No. 24 North Carolina on Sunday, the Virginia women's basketball team faces another menacing opponent in N.C. State on Sunday at noon.
N.C. State (10-9, 4-4 ACC) currently stands fourth in the ACC, and also received votes in the ESPN/USA Today poll. With a win, the Cavalier women (10-8, 4-5 ACC) can move up to as high as third in the tightly packed ACC standings.
For Virginia, this game could have post-season tournament implications. A victory Sunday would be Virginia's second against N.C. State this season, and would show the tournament committee that the Cavaliers, who beat the Wolfpack on its home court by 16 points, clearly are the better team.
"To be honest, I haven't even thought about the NCAA [tournament] picture," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "I think it's going to be interesting to see how they view us as a conference because there's just so much parity in the conference right now. There's nobody that's clearly number two right now. It's very difficult to see how this picture's going to shake down."
Behind No. 5 Duke (17-3, 9-0 ACC), the teams placed second through sixth in the ACC are separated by no more than two games. Thus, the parity about which Ryan spoke is clearly evident. Nevertheless, a season sweep of the highly regarded Wolfpack would bode extremely well for the Cavaliers come selection time.
Much of the chances that Virginia has for success will come down to the play of freshman Brandi Teamer. On Jan. 21, Teamer was awarded the ACC's rookie of the week award for her 30-point, 20-rebound weekly total. The award was her fourth of the season.
So far, the freshman standout has averaged 9.1 rebounds and 15.1 points per game, which rank her first and sixth in the ACC, respectively. Teamer also leads the conference with 10 double-doubles, six of which came in a streak that ended against North Carolina on Sunday.
While Teamer will try to earn her 11th double-double of the year against N.C. State, she will be matched up against the Wolfpack's most dominant player, 6-foot-3 redshirt sophomore center Kaayla Chones.
Teamer only is one inch shorter than Chones, the tallest player on N.C. State's roster.
"I look forward to the match-up," Teamer said. Chones is "one of the strongest players I go up against. The ACC is filled with great post players."
The low post area of the paint will be key offensively and defensively for the Cavaliers.
Offensively, Virginia will look for Teamer to dominate the boards and low post as she has all season, so that they can get the ball out on the perimeter to senior guard Telisha Quarles, who averages 15.7 points per game. Quarles is the Cavaliers' leading scorer, and ranks fourth in the ACC in scoring.
Defensively, the Cavaliers will have to stop Chones, who averages 13 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, and 6-foot-1 junior forward Carlisse Moody, who averages 12.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.
N.C. State will be prepared. They are. "going to come out firing," Teamer said. "They want revenge because they lost to us at home by 16 points."
If the Cavaliers can withstand the early charge by the Wolfpack, and keep up that strength throughout the game, they should be able to win a tightly fought contest.
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