The Virginia women’s basketball team travels to Tallahassee, Fla. tonight for a highly-anticipated rematch against Florida State. A win for the Cavaliers (21-7, 7-5 ACC) would avenge the team’s loss to the Seminoles (23-5, 11-1 ACC) earlier this season at home. The 80-75 defeat of the Cavaliers about a month ago is among the Seminoles’ 11 ACC wins, contributing to Florida State’s current No. 1 ranking in the ACC. Florida State is “playing together,” Virginia senior forward Lyndra Littles said. “When you win games and you get momentum, you also get a lot of confidence, and I think they’re playing with a lot of confidence.”
A likely source of Florida State’s confidence comes from point guard Courtney Ward, who ranks second in the ACC in assists, dishing out 4.9 per game. Florida State has also been deadly from beyond the arc this season, shooting nearly 40 percent from three-point range.
Although both Virginia and Florida State are evenly matched when it comes to points and rebounds per game, the Cavaliers boast a shot-blocker in senior center Aisha Mohammed. Mohammed could not only pose a threat to the Seminole’s post attack, but she could also be difficult to contain on the offensive end of the court, as she is currently averaging a double-double — scoring 14 points while grabbing 10.4 rebounds — per conference game.
The Cavaliers also possess the ACC’s leading scorer in junior guard Monica Wright, who has notched 21.4 points per game this season.
Florida State, however, has two players of its own who have steadily averaged double figures — Jacinta Monroe, averaging 13.5 points per game, and Tanae Davis-Cain, averaging 12.8 points per game.
If Virginia wishes to combat the diverse attack of coach Sue Semrau’s Seminoles, it will need contributions from other players, such as freshman guard Ariana Moorer, who has contributed 20 points in 53 minutes during her past two games.
“Going into the postseason, she’s maturing,” Littles said. “I think she’s a very important part of this turnaround we’re having.”
The No. 21 Cavaliers are coming off an impressive come-from-behind victory against Boston College Sunday. The seniors stepped up to beat the Eagles 90-70 in their last game in John Paul Jones Arena.
The performance against Boston College set the bar high for the Cavaliers as they reach the conclusion of their regular season. Aside from the emotions associated with senior night, the contest also marked a must-win for Virginia.
“It’s huge,” Ryan said. “I didn’t really push it with the players ... I did not [want to] make this a make-or-break game because you just can’t do that, especially with all the emotion that was already in the game.”
Having suffered the heart-breaking loss to the Seminoles at home, the Cavaliers now aim to knock the Seminoles out of the top conference spot.
“We have to go out there and make sure we do all the things that we did in the game when we played them that were right and eliminate the mistakes that we made,” Littles said.
With both teams playing at such a high level heading into tonight’s contest, there will be little room for sluggishness from either team. Although neither team shoots an outstanding percentage from the line, free throws also may very well prove key.
After the match against Florida State, Virginia only has one more game on its regular season schedule: Georgia Tech on Sunday. As the season comes to a close, the outcome of tonight’s showdown could determine each team’s momentum heading into the ACC tournament.
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