The Virginia women's basketball team overcame what its coach termed "lazy" play to post an 86-72 victory over Uralmash, a Russian team, in its exhibition finale last night at University Hall.
"I was disappointed with the defensive play in the second half," Cavalier coach Debbie Ryan said. "I thought we played a pretty good first half. In the second half, I thought we played very lazy defensively. It looked like we got bored out there."
Even a lazy, bored effort was enough for the Cavaliers to get past the overmatched visitors relatively easily. Ryan substituted freely in the second half, with every Virginia player seeing playing time and all but one getting into the scoring column.
The Cavaliers did it without much help from starting guard Telisha Quarles, who played only four minutes because of a sprained right ankle. Virginia steadily increased its lead as the game progressed, and held a 19-point lead three minutes into the second half, but Ryan was not altogether pleased.
"I played a lot of players and tried to get people a lot of time to give people a fair shot," Ryan said. "But if you're going to be going into the game, you've got to do something."
Sophomore center Schuye LaRue led the Cavaliers with 24 points and nine rebounds. Senior forwards Svetlana Volnaya and Chalois Lias scored 17 and 14 points, respectively.
Vera Shniukova led Uralmash with 27 points, and Tatyana Rebtsovskaya added 14.
The Cavaliers shot well from the field, including 53.3 percent from three-point range. Volnaya, Quarles and freshman point guard Safiya Grant led the long-range barrage, going 8-for-8 from behind the arc together.
However, the Cavs were atrocious from the free throw line, making only six of 21 first-half attempts en route to a 16-for-40 effort for the game.
Lias provided a spark from the Cavaliers off the bench, scoring nine of her 14 points in the first half.
"I'm just in to do what other people aren't," Lias said. "If we need offensive rebounds, I need to go in there and get offensive rebounds. If we need points, I need to go in there and put in my two cents."
The Cavaliers were impressive on the boards, pulling down more offensive rebounds (26) than Uralmash had defensive rebounds (20). Overall, the Cavs enjoyed a 53-30 rebounding advantage.
LaRue and senior forward Dean'na Mitchelson led the team with nine rebounds each.
Despite the Cavs' impressive statistics, Ryan stressed that last night's effort would not be enough against the stronger teams on the Virginia schedule.
"We're not going to be able to play like that with the schedule that we have," Ryan said. "We simply will not be able to do it."
Ryan also insisted the Cavs would not be able to rely on LaRue to carry them offensively every night.
"We're not going to be able to expect that from her," Ryan said. "People are going to key on her, and I think we have to spread the points around some. We need to get more from the bench and from people who are starting"
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