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TOBIN: Making their case for March

<p>Only a freshman, Dominique Toussaint has been a huge part of&nbsp;Cavaliers' recent success as a starting guard.</p>

Only a freshman, Dominique Toussaint has been a huge part of Cavaliers' recent success as a starting guard.

Regrettably, I was not present to witness Virginia women’s basketball’s greatest victory of the season Thursday night.

As I watched ESPN’s Gamecast from my laptop, I thought the Hoos had no chance of winning when they were down by five heading into the fourth quarter against then-No. 4 Florida State.

“We put up a good fight,” I said to Grant Gossage, one of our Sports editors who was with me in The Cavalier Daily office that night. “It’s going to be hard to overcome this deficit against as good of a team as Florida State.”

As per usual, I was — fortunately — wrong in my prediction. The Cavaliers played one of their best quarters this season, holding a prolific Florida State offense — typically averaging 81.3 points per game — to only five points in the quarter and 51 for the game. Additionally, Virginia scored 19 of their own. Seven of these points — five of which were from freshman guard Dominique Touissant — came in the final 88 seconds.

“It boosts our confidence,” Touissant said following the victory. “We knew we could win and we did come out with a win, and with [Florida State] being ranked No. 4, it says a lot about our team.”

The Cavaliers did not take their foot off the gas after its greatest win of the season. Sunday, they pulled off a dominant 63-55 win in Blacksburg over Virginia Tech. While the margin of victory was not large, once the Cavaliers scored their first bucket 97 seconds into the game they never looked back — leading Virginia Tech for the entire remainder of the game.

“That was a great basketball game in a great environment,” Virginia coach Joanne Boyle said. “Credit to the growth of this team, we have been in a lot of tight games this year and those have helped prepare us to be in these situations.”

What the Cavaliers lacked in shooting — only shooting 39 percent from the field and three for 11 from downtown — they made up for in sharing the ball. Led by senior guard Breyana Mason’s 13 points, Virginia had four players in double digits.

Those who did not score in double digits found different ways to contribute. Freshman center Felicia Aieyotan and junior forward Lauren Moses had five and eight rebounds, respectively. The bottom line — nearly every player on the Cavaliers has contributed to the team’s recent success.

If you asked me a week and a half ago, I would say Virginia had no chance of making it to March Madness. The Cavaliers came off losing two straight games against then-No. 15 Duke and then-No. 16 Miami, and only had one win against a ranked opponent this season.

However, the Cavaliers have recently looked like a team with new life. Instead of giving up 65.5 points on average like they had over those two games, they’ve only allowed slightly over 54 points per game in the past three. They have repeatedly risen up in tight situations, looking like a veteran team. And, most importantly, they absolutely shocked the world in the aforementioned Florida State game.

As of Feb. 14, ESPN’s Charlie Creme did not have Virginia in his tournament bracketology. In fact, he did not even have Virginia in his “first four out” or “next four out.” Essentially, Virginia was not considered one of the top 76 teams in the country.

Virginia has several claims to make to the selections committee, though. With the No. 45 RPI — the aggregate used to measure strength of schedule — in the country, Virginia has had some tough opponents this season. That is something inherent to the ACC — which, according to Creme’s bracketology, has seven teams that should be competing in March Madness.

Virginia’s win against a top five team also helps its cause. Prior to their loss to the Cavaliers, the Florida State Seminoles had only fallen to three other teams, including then-No. 3 Connecticut and then-No. 8 Texas. Whereas Virginia beat the Seminoles by nine points, Connecticut and Texas beat them by only two and four, respectively. Handing Florida State its worst loss of the season should definitely boost the Cavaliers March Madness resume.


With two regular-season games — both against opponents in the top 15 — and the ACC tournament left, Virginia has the ability to further chances of making it to March Madness for the first time in six seasons. While the road ahead is tough, one thing is clear — the Cavaliers are seriously making their case for March.

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