In a sloppily played game, the Virginia Cavaliers defeated the Richmond Spiders 83-76 last night in University Hall.
Led by Schuye LaRue's 21 points and 18 rebounds, the Cavaliers were able to overcome 31 turnovers and poor defensive play and pull out the victory.
Following another slow start, No. 25 Virginia (13-6) gained the lead for the first time when Dean'na Mitchelson's two free throws put the score at 18-17. After Richmond gained the lead with 3:27 remaining in the first half, the Cavaliers went on a 12-3 run to take a 36-29 halftime lead.
Continuing to ride the momentum that began in the end of the first half, Virginia came out of the locker room with a tenacious press that led to several easy buckets off turnovers. Led by nine points from LaRue in the opening two and a half minutes, Virginia expanded its lead to 50-31.
"Take away a couple of critical minutes where we had some key turnovers, and we could have very easily been in the game at the end," said Richmond coach Bob Foley, whose club fell to 9-8 with the loss.
Although the Cavalier lead surged as high as 24 points with 12:17 to play, the Spiders continued to press as they had the entire game.
"We weren't going to give up; we weren't going to just roll over and die," Richmond guard Elise Ryder said. "Our press was working, so we kept at it and got some critical steals. It kept working, so we kept doing it."
Led by a game-high 29 points from Candice Edwards, the Spiders got within eight points before Tasha Swaby threw a pass out of bounds with two minutes left, ending any serious chance of a Spiders' comeback.
Although they ended up with the victory, the Cavaliers did not look impressive toward the end of the game, nearly blowing the huge lead.
"Obviously I was very, very upset in the last three minutes," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "Giving up 76 points tonight was just inexcusable in my opinion."
Two bright spots for the Cavaliers were the play of freshman guard Anna Prillaman and Mitchelson, a senior forward. Prillaman contributed a career-high 15 points and steady point guard play with only one turnover. Coming off the bench, Mitchelson had 13 points and eight rebounds, proving indispensable with her tough play inside.
"Dean'na had a great night tonight, and if hadn't been for her, I don't know where we'd be right now," Ryan said. "She sparked us and gave us a good, strong effort inside and gave us a lot of energy on the court. I was real proud of her performance tonight."
The entire team will require even more energy and effort on Monday when the Cavaliers face conference-leading Duke, the nation's No. 5 team. Virginia won its first three ACC games but has dropped two of its last conference games. Jan. 7 at Georgia Tech, the Cavs began the skid by swallowing a 70-65 defeat. They rebounded to earn a rewarding two-point win at North Carolina but then sunk back in the morass of underachievement with a disheartening home loss to Clemson Monday night.
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