Senior Jayna Hartig played in her last regular season home game Thursday night against Duke. She and senior Paulisha Kellum were honored before tip-off. Photo by Grant Mathews

When a team fails to score a field goal for nearly 17 minutes, it is hard to come out victorious. When the opposing team is No. 9 Duke and looking to position itself for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, victory is near-impossible.

Unfortunately for Virginia women’s basketball, the team faced that exact situation against the Blue Devils (25-3, 11-2 ACC) last night, falling 71-48 in its penultimate regular season conference game and final regular season home game.

After jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead 2:32 into the game, the Cavaliers (15-14, 4-9 ACC) did not net a field goal until freshman guard Ataira Franklin made a three-pointer with 2:43 remaining in the first half. During Virginia’s slump, Duke embarked on a 30-4 run and exposed the Cavaliers from both the interior and perimeter. Virginia shot a measly 4-for-29 from the field during the first half, compared to the Blue Devils’ 13-for-31 performance.

“It’s weird, and it’s really hard to pinpoint why we couldn’t score,” junior guard Ariana Moorer said. “We just couldn’t shoot at all, even with the intensity and effort that we bring to every game.”

Virginia eventually picked itself up and outscored Duke 7-4 to close out the half. The Cavaliers extended that play to begin the second half, going on a 12-3 run during the first 4:52 of the second half to narrow Duke’s lead to nine points.

“It wasn’t until I just tried to change everything [that] we got our minds off of what was going on offensively,” Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. “We started to move the ball around the perimeter and take the first open shot, and we did play really well after that.”

Virginia had multiple opportunities to close the Blue Devils’ 37-28 lead even further, but could not find a way to get the ball inside the hoop. Duke, meanwhile, responded with a 13-0 run of its own to stretch its lead to 50-28. A battered Virginia team could not recover from such a deep hole.

Moorer was Virginia’s leading scorer on the evening with 14 points. Franklin was the only other player in double figures for the Cavaliers, adding 13 points and seven rebounds.

Duke senior guard Jasmine Thomas led all scorers with 18 points and dished out a game-high five assists. Freshman guard Tricia Liston added 16 points for Duke on four three-pointers. The Blue Devils out-rebounded Virginia 55-37.

“Duke’s tough; they’re big inside and they have players like Jasmine Thomas on the outside, and they’re tough to guard,” Ryan said. “We couldn’t rebound and that’s our biggest problem.”

Virginia concludes its regular season Sunday at Virginia Tech. Tip-off from Cassell Coliseum is set for 1 p.m.

Freshman guard Joe Harris came off the bench the last time Virginia met the Eagles, but is now the team’s second leading scorer with 10.6 points a game. Photo by Grant Mathews

The last time Virginia played Boston College, freshman guard Joe Harris served as a spark off the bench. When Virginia hosts the Eagles this Saturday, Harris will enter the game as the team’s second leading scorer.

Since tallying 11 points in a reserve role against Boston College (16-11, 6-7) Jan. 19, Harris has become a regular in the Cavaliers’ starting lineup. Although he is a freshman, the team has increasingly relied on Harris to guide them.

“Joe doesn’t play like a freshman,” junior guard Sammy Zeglinski said. “You can see he makes big shots during games. He’s matured a lot throughout the season and is in a good rhythm right now.”

Harris’s latest big shot helped seal Virginia’s 62-56 win against Georgia Tech Wednesday night. Trailing 55-46, the Yellow Jackets mounted a late charge and cut the Cavaliers’ lead to three points with 55 seconds remaining. Harris knocked down a critical three on Virginia’s next possession, though, and gave the team a much-needed cushion.

“That was at the end of the shot clock and I was glad to see him really step up and knock it down,” coach Tony Bennett said of the shot. Harris “has had a couple of those shots late in games and either didn’t shoot them or had not hit them, and this time, he did. Hopefully he grew up right before our eyes.”

Harris’s maturation adds a weapon the team missed while at Chestnut Hill. During that matchup, Virginia (14-13, 5-8 ACC) rallied from a 13-point deficit to grab a 57-56 lead with 6:40 remaining. Boston College junior guard Reggie Jackson knocked down a late three, however, and then hit all four of his final free throws to hand Boston College a 70-67 win.

Jackson leads a strong 1-2 punch for the Eagles. He and senior forward Joe Trapani both rank among the conference’s top-10 in scoring, averaging 18.2 and 14.7 points a game, respectively. Virginia allowed Jackson to post 16 points and seven boards at Boston College, but will emphasize stronger pressure against the guard during this bout.

We need “to frustrate him and make him take contested shots for 40 minutes,” Zeglinski said. “It’s going to be all five defenders against the ball. Just being in the right position, making him work to get shots and contesting everything.”

The Cavaliers are tied for second in the ACC in scoring defense, surrendering only 62.4 points a night. The team has held its previous three opponents to 56 points or less and earned a two-game winning streak in the process. Virginia will look to its stingy defense to halt an Eagles team which leads the conference with nine three-pointers a game.

“Every time out we’ve got to put up the same defensive effort, frustrate teams and make them play our style of basketball,” Zeglinski said. “If we’re able to do that and make some shots, I think we’ll be very competitive.”

Boston College, meanwhile, is the conference’s second worst scoring defense, allowing 70.3 points per game. The team has lost six of its last eight games since beating Virginia, including each of its last two. Although the Cavaliers caved to the Eagles at Boston College, the team is confident it can rectify that road loss.

“We’ll be at home where it’s a little easier to have energy with the crowd behind you,” Zeglinski said. “We want to come out of the gates swinging and defensively lock in early and make it tough for 40 minutes.”

Junior Chris Bocklet comes to Long Island as the reigning ACC Player of the Week. The attacker scored four goals in Virginia’s win against Mount St. Mary. Photo by Thomas Bynum

Seeking seven straight road-opener wins, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team travels to Long Island today to face off against Stony Brook. The game will be Stony Brook’s season opener and offers an ideal setting for revenge against a Virginia team (2-0) which ousted the Seawolves in the NCAA quarterfinals last season.

“[This is] A team that we beat in the NCAA quarterfinals by a couple last year in front of a packed house at our stadium — we’re going to have our hands full with those guys,” coach Dom Starsia said. “They’ve got everybody back. We’re also going to be their first game, but this will be fun.”

Stony Brook ranks as the No. 5 team in the country, but Virginia has solidified its No. 1 ranking during its first two games. While blowing out Mount St. Mary’s 22-6 and defeating Drexel 12-9, Virginia has attempted at least 10 shots each period. The Cavaliers are also averaging more than 52 ground balls per game. Virginia has averaged 11.5 more ground balls than their opponents during the first two periods and managed to win a majority of the faceoffs during the first half.

Yet, to Steele Stanwick, junior attackman and a preseason first-team All-American, one of the most important things Virginia has done is gotten off to a quick start.

“I think it all starts with the ground balls and faceoffs,” Stanwick said. “We really did a great job getting the loose balls, and those always equal goals. I think at the very beginning we were just really good on loose balls … that really helped us off to a great start.”

Although Stony Brook has not played a game yet, it will pose a challenging test for the Cavaliers. The Seawolves were unanimous picks to win the America East Conference and return their captain, senior midfielder Kevin Crowley, Lacrosse Magazine’s Division I Preseason Player of the Year. Crowley recently was drafted first overall in the collegiate draft — one of four Seawolves drafted. The midfielder was named player of the year in the America East and recorded 51 goals and 26 assists last season.

Crowley will complicate matters for the Cavaliers. Stanwick, however, is keeping his analysis of the game simple.

“We got Stony Brook on Saturday,” Stanwick said. “We’re going up to Long Island. They almost beat us there last year, so it should be a great game.”