A season ago, Virginia beat Auburn 66-51 at John Paul Jones Arena behind a 19-3 second-half run.
Tiger three-quarter-court pressure, which coach Joanne Boyle expects her guards to contend with again Thursday, forced a string of Cavalier turnovers from the tip.
“They’re a very athletic team,” Boyle said. “They’re going to press the whole game, so it’s about being composed and breaking the press and scoring off it. We need to continue to be aggressive and make them pay for pressing.”
Virginia (2-0) settled down eventually, relying on then-junior guard Faith Randolph and then-senior center Sarah Imovbioh — who later transferred to No. 2 South Carolina for her fifth year — to attack weak spots.
Auburn (2-0) kept it close in the first half behind the sharpshooting of then-sophomore guard Brandy Montgomery, who has averaged a team-high of 23 points per game this season. Montgomery tallied 16 points in 18 first-half minutes on that October afternoon.
The Cavaliers were up five at the midway point. In the final 15 minutes of regulation, Randolph locked up Montgomery, while then-freshman point guard Mikayla Venson ran the show and Imovbioh owned the boards.
Imovbioh also held the Tigers’ leading scorer, then-junior forward Tra’Cee Tanner, to only six points and four rebounds. The Birmingham, Alabama native has put together 16 and 18-point performances in 2015. With Imovbioh gone, Tanner could have a field day if the Cavaliers do not break a bad habit.
“Moving forward, I think our weak-side rebounding has to be better,” Randolph said. “As a team, guards and post, we all have to rebound and crash into the boards.”
Boyle acknowledged her group has competed intensely during practice and throughout the season-opener at Middle Tennessee State, a tone-setting 70-66 victory. But she did not like what she saw effort-wise in a rollover 86-50 win Monday night against Norfolk State.
“We have to be more disciplined,” Boyle said. “In practice, we’re doing a good job on defense and closing out hard by moving our feet. Again, I thought we got a little lazy there when the score got up big. That’s the difference between being good and being great.”
Virginia has produced more consistently on the offensive end, where everybody who steps onto the floor seems to contribute. Monday, the box score listed seven Cavalier players in double figures. The versatile Randolph led the way with 17 points on 6-9 shooting.
Two Virginia reserves, who were not included in that double-digit scoring club or the main rotation, showed some promise in their limited minutes.
A 2015 graduate of Amherst County High in Madison-Heights, Virginia, freshman center Debra Ferguson tallied three rebounds and four points over 10 minutes. Sophomore forward Jae’Lisa Allen, who appeared in four games last year, added zero points and one board over seven.
“It was nice to get Deb and Jae’Lisa in a little bit,” Boyle said. “[Deb] was very productive in her four minutes tonight and it bought others some time. If we can get five to 10 minutes from her every game, that would be huge.”
Ferguson and Allen may not see a whole lot of court time Thursday, but they will be two of the first to jump to their feet and high-five tired teammates. Those Virginia players who do see action should be ready for a different kind of game than the one they played Monday.
The Auburn offense, which has scored 82.5 points per game, will keep its lackluster defense in the game, at least through two quarters. How the Cavaliers respond in the third will likely determine whether they remain unbeaten in this young season.
“Going into the third quarter, we emphasize attacking and not letting teams get into it,” sophomore forward Lauren Moses said. “We really want to make that effort to get going in the third quarter and be that attacker.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Auburn Arena. The matchup will be televised live on the SEC Network.
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