How does a Brazilian player on a Russian team dominate in a Virginia women's basketball game?
That was the question the fans at University Hall were left to ponder as they saw Iziane Castro Marques lead visiting UMMC Ekateringburg to an 89-70 win over the Cavaliers.
Castro Marques, a 22-year old from Brazil, had 33 points in 33 minutes in the exhibition win. Virginia was paced by forward Brandi Teamer, who dropped in 13 points for the home team. Last night's game, which does not count in Virginia's record, was the final part of a U.S. tour for Ekateringburg who finished 5-2.
The evening started out diplomatically, with both teams exchanging gifts before tip-off. The friendly feeling continued when the game started, as neither team built a significant lead in the first half. The Cavaliers established the first real lead of the night after a three-pointer from the corner by Brenna McGuire to make the score 18-12. Ekateringburg fought back to tie the score at 20-20 led by four fast break points from Castro Marques.
"We just didn't play very good defense," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "We didn't play well and we're going to have to fix that."
Virginia regained the lead when Latonya Blue hit a free throw to make the score 22-20, but that would prove to be the last time the Cavaliers led in the game. The closest Virginia would come to taking the lead again would be when the score was 37-34 in the closing moments of the first half.
The Cavaliers had a chance to shrink Ekateringburg's lead to one possession in closing moments of the first half, but failed to capitalize on a traveling violation and an air-ball by Ekateringburg on consecutive possessions.
After the break, Ekateringburg built a 13-point lead with a surge of baskets which Virginia could not recover from. Ekateringburg used its height advantage (the Russian centers were 6-5 and 6-4) to dominate in the paint en route to shooting 52.6 percent from the field.
Our "players know how to play post defense," Ryan said. "But we got caught playing too high tonight. We were allowing penetration from their guards. Our post players need to step up."
Virginia showed signs of a possible late-game surge after Ekateringburg's starting forward, Marina Khazova, fouled out with 13:16 left in the second half. On the ensuing possession, freshman point guard Sharnee Zoll shot a three-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to seven, 60-53. Ekateringburg soon built its lead back to 10 points, 55-65, and Virginia never came within double digits after that moment.
Teamer had half of her game-high eight offensive rebounds in the second half. Teamer was also the only player in the game to finish in double-digits in total rebounds with 15. She was also the only player on the court to record a double-double.
"I don't think [the double-double] matters at this point," Teamer said. "We didn't capitalize on our opportunities. I didn't capitalize on my offensive rebounds."
The Cavaliers did not capitalize from behind the three-point arc, either. After coming off a game where the team made 10 shots from downtown, Virginia shot 8.3 percent as a team on 4-22 from long range.
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