Greensboro, N.C.
The ACC women's basketball tournament unfolded precisely as expected this weekend up until last night's championship game, when top seeded Duke beat the second seed North Carolina, 77-59.
In the first round, every favored team tasted victory, with the exception of the match-up between the two 8-8 teams, as the fifth seed Georgia Tech beat the fourth seed Seminoles. For the red-hot Cavaliers, this meant a win over the No. 6 seed N.C. State and a loss to the Tar Heels in a rematch of the last game of the regular season.
In front of record crowds at the Greensboro Coliseum, the Cavaliers (16-13, 9-7 ACC) made their case for a bid to the NCAA tournament. After enjoying a bye on the first day of the tournament, No. 3 seed Virginia took on the Wolfpack (11-17, 6-10).The Cavaliers had split their regular season series against N.C. State--with both teams winning at home--but Virginia entered the tournament riding a 10-3 hot streak. "We have only played one game in two weeks," coach Debbie Ryan said of the first half of the game against N.C. State. "It was definitely obvious tonight that our timing was off; we were nervous, we were missing easy shots, we were going too fast."
The Cavaliers floundered in the first half of their quarterfinal matchup, due in part to a drought from their leading scorer on the season, sophomore guard Cherrise Graham. Graham failed to score the entire first half and finally put her first points on the board eight and a half minutes into the second half when she drained a pull-up three point shot.
Virginia mounted the third largest comeback in tournament history, fighting their way to victory, sparked by the aggressive play of junior forward Anna Crosswhite. Crosswhite scored seven straight points to give Virginia its first lead of the second half.
"Anna Crosswhite really lit a fire under this team," Ryan said. "In the first half she really played with a lot of heart, she went in and she dove on the floor, she hustled after rebounds and kind of ignited everybody else."
Crosswhite agreed that she was exceptionally willing to leave everything on the floor.
"I didn't want to go home after today," she said. "I think we pretty much just buckled down and played hard" the second half.
With Graham unable to score, other players stepped up. Junior Anna Prillaman grabbed 10 rebounds and scored 10 points to record her second career double-double.
"I haven't had a really good year as far as my shot has gone," Prillaman said. "Debbie told me to focus on other areas, getting the team organized on offense, getting defensive rebounds, going to the offensive boards so that's what I tried to focus on tonight."
Brandi Teamer led the Cavalier scoring drive with 18 points and also recorded a double-double, her fifth of the season and number 18 in her two-year career.
For Graham, however, the night was bittersweet as shooting 2-13 from the floor left her frustrated.
"It just wasn't my night I guess," Graham said of Saturday's game. "It was horrible. I was very frustrated."
Just before going to the bench at the end of warm ups for the semifinal game against North Carolina, Graham hit a 24 foot jump shot, an omen that Sunday's game would turn out to be nearly the opposite of the quarterfinal victory.
Graham scored a Virginia tournament record 36 points but the Tar Heels exacted revenge for a loss at U-Hall just a week earlier with a 10-point victory to propel them to the semifinals.
"She creates so many problems for people that it opens up our outside game because when she penetrates everything opens up on the outside," Ryan said of Graham.
Unfortunately for Virginia, the Cavaliers were unable to take advantage of Graham opening up the outside. Despite taking 26 open three --point shots, only seven fell, whereas Carolina made 10 of just 14 attempts from behind the arc. The older, bigger Tar Heel squad also exploited Virginia's lack of muscle inside. Carolina came away with 57 rebounds including 26 on the offensive end of the floor.
"We came out with some energy today," Ryan said of Virginia's up and down rematch with North Carolina. "I was disappointed in our ability to keep Carolina off the boards in the first half and I felt like that was the key to the game. We scored enough points to win, but we didn't play good enough defense to win."
The lead changed hands seven times in the first half, but the Tar Heels took a three-point lead into the half and Virginia was unable to take the lead again.
Having lost in the ACC tournament, Virginia will have to wait until Selection Sunday, March 16, to find out if they earned a bid to the NCAA tournament.
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