When Virginia junior guard Anna Prillaman turned the ball over only seconds into yesterday's game against the St. Joseph's Hawks, Virginia coach Debbie Ryan immediately benched her starting guard.
Ryan's message resonated loud and clear for the 2-0 Cavaliers. The team committed only 10 turnovers through the rest of the game and held the Hawks (0-2) to their lowest offensive output in 19 years on their way to a 66-37 trouncing in yesterday's home opener.
The win followed a 63-55 upset of No. 23 Old Dominion on the road Friday. The Cavaliers trailed by two at the half against the Lady Monarchs and shot only 27.8 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, but were able to storm back in the second half.
Sophomore guard Cherise Graham scored nine of her 11 points in the last three minutes of action at ODU, and the Cavaliers made over 60 percent of their shots from the field in the second half.
Despite the come-from-behind victory, Virginia's 25 turnovers against the Lady Monarchs left an unsavory taste in Ryan's mouth. The Cavaliers managed to cut their giveaways in half against St. Joseph's yesterday, however, and held the Hawks to zero points off Virginia turnovers.
"We know that we can't turn the ball over the way we did [against ODU] and we've known that we have to improve that part of the game and we've worked hard on that and it's started to pay off," Ryan said. "We had a lot of players today who played and didn't turn the ball over at all, and that's what I like to see. If you want to play, you better not turn the ball over too much."
Virginia was ahead for most of the game against St. Joseph's and took a 31-19 lead into halftime. The Cavaliers opened the second half with a 21-6 run and never looked back.
St. Joseph's couldn't compete with the Cavalier post players, who outscored the Hawks 32-8 in the paint.
Sophomore center Brandi Teamer led the Cavaliers with 11 points and six rebounds in the victory and Virginia received a balance effort from the entire team. Every player on the squad tallied at least seven minutes of court time.
"Everybody was pretty much consistent tonight," Teamer said. "If you look at the stat sheet, everything was pretty much balanced."
Other key contributors included sophomore guard LaTonya Blue who netted 10 points and sophomore center Lynette O'Reggio who scored seven and grabbed six rebounds.
St. Joseph's took an early 7-4 lead in the first half, but Virginia responded with an 11-1 run and continued to increase its lead throughout the game, eventually going up by 31 points.
Virginia's defensive effort frustrated St. Joe's throughout the contest. The Hawks shot a meager 29.2 percent from the field, and Virginia's aggressive full-court press helped force St. Joseph's into giving up 28 turnovers.
"Because we have so much depth, we'll be able to utilize the full-court press more," Ryan said."We will be pressing a lot more this year."
Virginia's depth should come in handy tomorrow night, when the team travels to Lynchburg to face Liberty for its third game in five days.
Read More
Football lands three additional transfers
By Peter Kriebel | YesterdayOne common trait that stands out with this most recent batch of transfers is size.
Men’s basketball suffers road drubbing versus California
By Emory Huffman | YesterdayVirginia submitted another rudderless performance.
