I'll admit I didn't see it coming. I don't think anyone did. The 11-point run during a 90 second span that fueled Virginia's win over Clemson on Saturday caught everyone off guard.
And why would anyone expect a sudden offensive explosion? The two teams had just played a very even, and unexciting, 28-28 first half. So when the second half started, my mind was drifting elsewhere. Wondering what the score in the Eagles-Vikings game was the major thought on my mind when Brandi Teamer went baseline and made a bucket while being fouled.
Teamer would miss her free throw, but to see physical play from her was exciting enough. Soon after Teamer's bucket, Jocelyn Logan-Friend blocked a shot and was fouled as she ran the court. At this point, the NFL playoffs had left my mind, and everyone else's I'm sure.
Something was happening on the court, but would the Cavaliers make use of it? The next two possessions answered that question. LaTonya Blue answered with an offensive rebound (one of the 16 the Cavaliers had in the game) and a quick putback. By this time the crowd was behind the home team. A teasing three-pointer by Brenna McGuire that bounced twice on the rim before going in was, in retrospect, the only way a scoring run like that could have ended.
The crowd was excited; the team was pumped; everything was going right. But where did that energy come from? I had questions about how everything played out for the Cavaliers, but I didn't get many answers. I attended the post-game press conference, and I don't even know if the Virginia coaches and players know how that 11-point outburst transpired. Yes, they talked about energy and working as a team, but I think, deep inside, they were as stunned as everyone else. Maybe the Cavaliers just took advantage of the opportunities they received in a short time.
Turning a steal and a blocked shot into five points is a good way to gain separation. So maybe that fact combined with the absence of Clemson point guard Julie Talley, who was injured when Teamer went baseline to start the run, can explain how Cavaliers did it. Maybe it was just fundamentals.
But don't ask Clemson coach Jim Davis about what happened. After the game, Davis repeatedly apologized for what he called "the worst 20 minutes in the history of the game." To an extent, Davis is right because his players obviously didn't come out of the locker room at the end of halftime. In addition, the Tigers never recovered mentally from the blitzkrieg that was the Virginia offense, and the mental lapses showed.
While the Clemson players started taking shots from wherever they could find an opening, the Cavaliers moved the ball around to find a better shot. The mental difference shows in the shooting percentages of the second half. Clemson's throw-it-up-because-I-have-the-ball approach to the second half yielded a 21.2 field goal percentage. But Virginia's ball movement and patience paid off as the Cavaliers shot 63 percent from the field in the second half.
So maybe the main factor in Virginia's run was mental toughness. As clichéd as it sounds, Virginia won because its team members were better prepared mentally and had that extra edge on Sunday. And it also helped that the Tigers somehow lost themselves in the locker room.
But to be honest, I don't really know what happened on the court -
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