North Carolina and Virginia always seem to decide their games in the last minutes, and yesterday was no exception. Luckily for the Cavaliers, the dice fell in favor of a Virginia team that desperately needed an emotional victory as the women's basketball team held onto a second-half lead to beat the Tar Heels, 76-73.
Although the Virginia win was never guaranteed, the team looked determined and unified after struggling with inconsistency and lack of unity all midseason.
"It's a huge win," coach Debbie Ryan said. "Right now it's everything. We really were reeling from what happened on Thursday night, and I think that we really came together as a team tonight."
After the Cavaliers lost to Georgia Tech by 15 points last Thursday, Ryan criticized her team's desire and dedication.
But last night, Virginia looked ready to play and stuck with the Tar Heels every step of the way. The lead changed 14 times, but the Cavaliers posted the largest lead of nine points in the second half.
Virginia had a distinct advantage outside the arc.
"The difference in the game was three-point shooting," North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said.
Hatchell's team sunk only one three-pointer in 17 attempts, while Virginia got threes from senior forward Svetlana Volnaya, freshman guard Anna Prillaman and junior guard Telisha Quarles, with 42.1 percent accuracy.
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The first score of the game was one of Quarles' two consecutive treys but the Tar Heels quickly answered with shots from 6-foot-6 freshman Candace Sutton and the conference's leading scorer, LaQuanda Barksdale.
Barksdale had a game-high 27 points, despite what Ryan called Virginia's "good, hard, aggressive defense." A Barksdale jump shot gave Carolina a 39-41 first-half lead.
"When I check her, I try not to let her touch the ball," sophomore forward Schuye LaRue said. "Try to make the other players score. I just tried to keep her hands off the ball as much as possible."
LaRue was the Cavaliers' answer to Barksdale. In addition to posting team-highs with 23 points and six assists, she took it upon herself to help the Cavaliers control the ball by grabbing 13 defensive rebounds and 19 rebounds overall. LaRue notched her 17th double-double of the season.
"That was an awesome display from both of them," Ryan said. "We couldn't stop Barksdale, and they couldn't stop Schuye."
Virginia's prowess on the boards was greatly improved compared to Thursday's game.
"We've done a lot of rebounding drills ... we spent most of the time [before the game] on rebounding," Ryan said. The practice seemed to have paid off. Against the Yellow Jackets, the Cavaliers grabbed 37 rebounds. Virginia stepped up against UNC to finish with 43 rebounds and out-rebounded Carolina in the first half.
The second half started much like the first, as Volnaya sunk a three to push the Cavaliers into the lead they would hang onto for the rest of the game.
Although the Cavaliers were ahead, the game went down to the wire.
"The last four minutes of the game were just critical and we made some mistakes in the last four minutes," LaRue said. "But we were able to weather the storm and follow directions right down to the end."
Inside the last minute, Sutton was fouled on a two-point shot and sunk her free throw to put the Tar Heels within one point of Virginia.
With the shot clock ticking down, Prillaman hit a jumper off a Volnaya drive to put Virginia up 76-73.
"That was a huge assist on Svetlana's part," Ryan said.
North Carolina attempted a three-point play that featured Barksdale, but Virginia stepped up on defense to hold onto its hard-fought win.
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