The Virginia women’s basketball team is riding a two-game winning streak into Notre Dame, Indiana, where the Cavaliers will play the No. 4 Fighting Irish Thursday night at Purcell Pavilion.
Of the Cavaliers’ (15-7, 5-4 ACC) seven remaining games, five will be against ranked teams. The first ranked opponent the Cavaliers faced this season was No. 25 Syracuse Jan. 11 in New York. The Cavaliers got off to a bad start, missing 11 of their first 12 shots and eventually losing 70-58. Virginia also faced No. 8 Louisville on the road earlier this season, losing 67-55.
Virginia won its second conference road game Sunday at Clemson, 77-72, and is now 4-5 away from Charlottesville. The Cavaliers had a major lead midway through the first half as the Tigers struggled to score, but Clemson came charging back after halftime when Virginia started missing shots. Clemson took the lead 71-69 with 3:23 left in the game but only scored one more point the rest of the way.
“Anytime you can come out on their home floor and have the lead, lose it, come back and finish strong, we’ll take it,” coach Joanne Boyle said. “It’s not the basketball we want to be playing every night, but we’ve just got to learn. We know going into the road, we cannot have nights like this.”
Freshman forward Lauren Moses had a crucial steal with 0:25 left in the game, putting the Cavaliers on the free throw line to add to their 73-72 lead. Moses finished the game with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two steals for her first collegiate double-double.
Freshman guard Mikayla Venson followed up her near-perfect performance against NC State with 12 points and four assists against the Tigers and was named ACC Freshman of the Week. She is the first Virginia player to receive the honor in four years.
“It’s been a tremendous impact,” sophomore guard Breyana Mason said of the freshmen class’ play. “From the very beginning, they’ve had their highs. They’ve had some lows, but when you get this far into the season, you’re not really a first year anymore. You’ve got to start playing like a second year, and I think they have.”
The Fighting Irish (21-2, 8-1 ACC) are tied with Florida State atop the conference standings, and their only two losses have come against defending champion No. 3 Connecticut in a rematch of the 2014 national championship game and Miami on a night when the Irish only made six first-half shots. Otherwise, Notre Dame has been efficient on the offensive end, boasting the league’s best scoring offense, highest field-goal and 3-point percentages and most assists.
“They’re a complete team one to five,” Boyle said. “They all know their roles. They have a very systematic team; they shoot the ball well; they have a great post game; they have great passes to each other; they can share the basketball, so we’re going to have a great game.”
At the three position is freshman forward Brianna Turner, who already has been named ACC Freshman of the Week five times and National Freshman of the Week twice — deservingly so, as she shoots a nation-best 68 percent from the field. Turner is also fourth in the ACC in blocks.
Turner is not the best player on her team — in scoring, at least. Leading that category for the Irish is junior guard Jewell Loyd, who is averaging an ACC and personal-best 21.3 points per game. She also has career highs in assists, steals and assist/turnover ratio and has been named ACC Player of the Week three times this season.
In the teams’ first meeting as conference opponents last year, the Cavaliers almost upset the then-undefeated Irish in Charlottesville but couldn't pull through after closing within two points with 3:49 remaining the game. But this year’s matchup will be on the road, where the Cavaliers will have to keep up the energy, Venson said.
“[It’s about] keeping up the energy,” Venson said of the challenges of playing on the road. “Trying to continue the energy and get everyone involved and focused and bringing that grittiness. We’ve emphasized being a road warrior and I think we need to take that to the next level now.”
Tip off is set for 7 p.m.
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