It's great to be back.
After a two-year absence, the Virginia women's basketball team took the court in Norfolk Sunday night for its first NCAA Tournament game since 2005, using a dominant second half to defeat UC Santa Barbara 86-52.
The game came more than two weeks after Virginia's semifinal loss to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament, and the Cavaliers were a bit sluggish at the start of the contest.
"I think our timing was a little bit off," coach Debbie Ryan said. "You can practice all you want, but when you go into a game it's a different speed."
Early on, Virginia found itself down 12-9 to the Gauchos. Sophomore forward Enongé Stovall, however, came off the bench to sink consecutive baskets that would give the Cavaliers the lead with 12:14 remaining. Virginia would not trail again the rest of the game.
Stovall is "a scrappy player," senior point guard Sharneé Zoll said. "She plays hard as long as she is in there. It was really good to see her play well today not only offensively but defensively. That's what she always does. She brings defensive pressure and hustle and a lot of energy and spark off the bench. Today she hit some layups and she hit some free throws, and that really sparked us a lot."
During the opening moments of the second half, Virginia kicked its game into a higher gear, pushing the ball and getting easy baskets in transition. After a free throw by Gaucho freshman forward Ashlee Brown cut Virginia's lead to 7 with 17:05 remaining, the Cavaliers used a 16-0 run capped off by a putback from junior center Aisha Mohammed with 12:38 left, using their endurance to take control of the game for good.
"I think one of the things we focus on is our conditioning," Zoll said. "We knew that they were a physical team, a scrappy team, and they play hard for 40 minutes no matter what. We knew that if we kept running and running it was going to take a toll at some point in time."
Zoll, usually a pass-first point guard, came out aggressive from the opening tip, getting to the rim for easy layups. The senior captain finished the game with 13 points while shooting five-of-seven from the field.
"I don't go into any game with a certain game plan," Zoll said. "I just take what the defense gives me, really. They were playing up on me and they were pressuring a lot. So in order to take the pressure off myself in the full court, I just had to go past the girls. They had a week to prepare for us, and I'm sure their coach told them I was a passer."
Her aggressive runs, then, were a surprise to a defense prepared for a passing point guard.
Junior forward Lyndra Littles' performance, however, was no surprise. Littles picked up where she left off in the ACC Tournament, registering a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds for her third consecutive double-double.
Littles "has been going to the boards a lot harder knowing that we have to have that in order to win," Ryan said. "She knows that rebounding is a key and she's really wanted to do better with that."
Mohammed chipped in 15 points and seven rebounds, while Stovall added 10 points and five rebounds off the bench.
Next up for Virginia is a second-round date with Old Dominion on its home floor. Last year, the Cavaliers defeated the Lady Monarchs 92-72 in the first game at John Paul Jones Arena. Virginia is not expecting a 20-point blowout this time, however.
"It's a whole different year," Zoll said. "That was last year. They're a great team. They have a lot of athletes. We are really looking forward to the matchup"
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