After a mediocre showing against Longwood Saturday night, the Cavaliers came out and gave it their all last night against a ranked opponent but fell short of a win, losing to No. 13 George Washington 70-68 at John Paul Jones Arena.
Virginia (1-1) actually held the lead over the Colonials (2-0) for much of the game.
George Washington shot out to a 10-1 lead in the opening minutes of the game, but Virginia quickly stormed back, kicking off its own 13-0 run to take the lead at 14-10. The key that seemed to turn the ignition for the Cavaliers was junior forward Lyndra Littles, who came into the game at the 16:38 mark of the first half. Within three minutes, Littles had already racked up five points, two steals and one rebound, all of which occurred during Virginia's 13-point run.
Littles, who senior guard Sharneé Zoll called a "ridiculous spark," returned to action after missing the exhibition game against Team Concept and the game against Longwood, finishing last night with a double-double, tallying 25 points and 11 rebounds.
"She obviously showed she can put points on the board and make things happen for us," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said.
While it appeared as if Littles was anxious to get into the game, she said she was just excited and "wasn't trying to rush it."
"I was trying to let the game come to me," Littles said.
Despite Littles' help, Virginia's scoring burst did not continue and the game was tight the rest of the way, with the Cavaliers' largest lead registering at eight points at the 2:31 mark in the first half with a score of 33-25.
Virginia held the lead deep into the game but could never take complete control. The Colonials finally showed why they are ranked among the nation's top teams when they mounted a comeback with 7:37 left in the game with the score 54-47 in favor of the Cavaliers.
George Washington senior guard Kimberly Beck, who received Preseason Honorable Mention All-American honors by the Associated Press, got the comeback going with a three-pointer, and it snowballed from there. The Colonials took their first lead since the 14:43 mark in the first half at 55-54 with 5:30 left in the game on another three-pointer by junior forward Antelia Parrish.
Defensively, Virginia played well against George Washington, limiting the Colonials to just 23 of 59 shooting (39 percent). Virginia's defense against George Washington's three-pointers, however, was less than stellar; The Colonials shot seven for 14 from behind the arc (50 percent).
"The looks they got were out of broken plays, and we just didn't rotate out or were helping someone we shouldn't have been," Ryan said. "That's the only area of the game I was super disappointed with."
After the Colonials recaptured the lead, the Cavaliers could never get closer than one point. Pairs of three-pointers by Zoll, sophomore guard Monica Wright and Littles with less than a minute left in the game cut the lead to three, two and one respectively. Clutch free-throw shooting from the Colonials proved to be a key down the stretch, as George Washington hit five of its six free throws during the last minute of play.
Offensively, the Cavaliers committed 20 turnovers, which was double the number of the team's assists, something Zoll said was "just not going to work."
Still, in only the second game of the season, Virginia showed it can compete against basically any team in the nation.
"There's no win column that says 'you should have won,'" Zoll said. "It's either a win or a loss, and this was a loss. Of course we'll learn from this. It's the second game of the season. We can't be too hard on ourselves ... We kind of see where we are. [They are the] 12th or 13th team in the country, and we took them down to the wire. We fought too hard -- my girls played too hard for us to lose"
Read More
Payton Cormier breaks Division I goals record
By Michael Liebermann | 19 hours agoCormier has forever cemented his legacy as one of the greatest lacrosse players in NCAA history.
Cavaliers advance to NCAA Championship with second place finish at Baton Rouge Regional
By Stephen O'Dea | 20 hours agoVirginia will head to the National Championship in Carlsbad, Calif., with a chance to make history.
Thank you, Reece Beekman
By Ben Istvan | YesterdayBeekman will leave Charlottesville as the program's all-time leader in steals.
