The Virginia women's basketball team hosts its final regular season home game tonight against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. and the team's seniors will be honored prior to the game at 7:15.
The Cavaliers (12-14, 5-9 ACC) are coming off a heart-breaking home loss Sunday against Florida State, in which they saw the game slip away in the final moments as the result of a technical foul called on the bench.
Senior guard Anna Prillaman led Virginia in scoring with 14 points, followed by juniors Brandi Teamer and Kate Kraeger with 13 and 12 points respectively.
Teamer attributed the loss not to the technical foul in the final seconds, but instead to poor play in the final minutes.
"I think it came down to the last four minutes," Teamer said. "We made a lot of crucial mistakes in the last four minutes. We had a five second call and didn't get a lot of good shots off."
Down two points with 16 seconds remaining in the game, the Cavaliers were forced to run the ball the length of the court and take a desperation three in hopes of converting. Junior LaTonya Blue's shot bounced off the rim, however, and Virginia came away with another close conference loss.
Virginia coach Debbie Ryan acknowledged the importance of the technical foul and an ensuing foul that gave the Seminoles a two-point lead, but emphasized that the game was still within grasp in the final seconds.
"We had to foul because they had possession," she said. "It was significant to a point, but we still had a chance to tie the game."
The Cavaliers now have their sights set on finishing their regular season strong, beginning with the Demon Deacons, a team they narrowly defeated earlier this month in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Virginia played a mediocre first half, down by as many as 12 points before cutting the halftime deficit to five. They were down by as many as 15 points in the second half before Prillaman ignited the offense with three three-pointers, part of a run that cut the Wake Forest lead to one. With 14.9 seconds remaining, Blue hit what would prove to be the game-winning jumper, and the Cavaliers came away with a 62-61 victory.
In their final game of the regular season, Virginia will travel to Chapel Hill Sunday to take on the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels. The first meeting between the teams this season was another close contest, but saw the Cavaliers deteriorate in the final 20 seconds and succumb to the Heels, 75-70 at home.
The next competition against UNC will be even more difficult since it is away, but the Cavaliers will, at the very least, be well aware of the danger of allowing Carolina's star freshman Ivory Latta opportunities for three-pointers. Latta played a key role in the last-minute defeat of the Cavaliers in January.
While wins against Wake and UNC will not guarantee Virginia's qualification in the NCAA Tournament, the games may provide a glimpse into what the Cavaliers must do in the ACC Tournament. Unless Virginia wins the ACC Tournament, this will be the first season in 20 years they will not qualify for the NCAA tournament.
The game against Wake tonight will be the Cavaliers' next opportunity to break their four-game ACC losing streak and end their season on a positive note before entering the do-or-die ACC Tournament.
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