Late in the second half Sunday afternoon, the Virginia women's basketball team found itself in a familiar position, looking poised to pull off an upset of one of the ACC's powerhouses. The Cavaliers also found themselves in a familiar position when the horn sounded, though, coming up short to No. 12Duke 78-70 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"I thought we came with our guns loaded today," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "I think the poise factor kind of bit us in the butt and, unfortunately, that was the difference in the game."
A pair of free throws from sophomore guard Monica Wright put Virginia (20-8, 8-4 ACC) ahead 61-57 with 6:47 to play, but the Blue Devils (21-7, 10-3 ACC) would use an 11-0 run over the next 3:58 to take control of the game.
The Cavaliers also suffered because of their care of the basketball. Virginia turned the ball over on each of its four possessions from the 5:26 mark to 3:35 left in the game. During that stretch, Duke turned a 2-point deficit into a 4-point lead.
"In key times, I thought we played very uncharacteristically toward the end of the game and didn't execute well," Ryan said. "And that's really not like us."
The run was capped off when a Virginia defensive breakdown left junior guard Abby Waner wide open for three. The sharp-shooting All-American drained the deep ball from the right wing, giving Duke a 68-61 lead with 2:49 to play and delivering a knock-out blow for the Blue Devils.
"We had Waner down the entire game, and we didn't make a switch out, and then stuff that happened was not very good on our part," Ryan said. "We let her get away for one shot, basically, and that was a killer for us. It was a dagger."
Virginia played a bit short-handed down the stretch with top reserve Enongé Stovall seeing limited action. The sophomore hurt her ankle in practice Saturday and re-aggravated the injury soon after halftime. As a result, all five Cavalier starters played at least 18 minutes in the second half.
Ryan insisted that fatigue did not play a role in her team's play in the final minutes, but the results may suggest otherwise.
"I asked them during every timeout [if they were tired]," Ryan said. "I use timeouts to rest them a little, but I ask them every single time and everybody kept saying, 'No.'"
Junior center Aisha Mohammed turned in her second strong performance this week, clearly putting her frustrating game at Virginia Tech a week ago fully behind her. Mohammed battled with Duke junior center Chante Black, a Naismith Award midseason candidate, all afternoon. Mohammed finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds for her 11th double-double of the year, while Black led Duke with a career-high 22 points and eight rebounds.
"[Mohammed] is a very physical player," Black said. "She did a great job on the boards and on the offensive end. Coach was telling me to try and play her early to limit her touches, but she was able to get some shots off and get some baskets. She's a great physical player."
Still, for the fourth time this year, Virginia has come close against a top-tier team and has not been able to get over the hump. The Cavaliers do not feel, however, that they are coming away from these losses empty-handed.
"We've already taken a lot from this," Ryan said. "We've played two of these games on the road and we've been close in all of them. We're really not far away, and we know that. It's just so frustrating for us right now because today we needed to close the door, and we didn't do it. We don't have to play flawlessly to finish a game like this, but the distance between us and the top three teams in this conference is razor-thin"
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