The inaugural women's ACC/Big Ten Challenge comes to Charlottesville Friday night as Virginia entertains Big Ten challenger Wisconsin at 7 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena.
The Cavaliers (4-3) look to avenge last year's season-ending loss to the Badgers (2-2) in the quarterfinals of the WNIT. Virginia led by 14 points at one point in that game but still fell to Wisconsin 84-78.
Both teams come into tonight's match-up after reaching the final round of their respective Thanksgiving break tournaments.
Going into the break having lost two of its last three games to nationally ranked George Washington and South Carolina, Virginia defeated 21st-ranked Texas and Minnesota before falling to Hartford 70-53 in the championship of the Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu last weekend.
Sophomore guard Monica Wright and junior forward Lyndra Littles led Virginia with both being named to the All-Tournament team. Littles leads the team for the season averaging 16.7 points per game with Wright following closely at an average of 15.3 points per contest, despite getting off to a slow start. In her last four games, Wright has averaged 21.3 points per game.
Orchestrating the offense for the Cavaliers will be senior point guard Sharneé Zoll. As one of the team's co-captains, Zoll is leading the team with 4.6 assists per game.
Junior center Aisha Mohammed will patrol the paint for the Cavaliers as she averages 11.4 points and a team-high 9.6 rebounds per game.
Wisconsin participated in the Pepperdine Tournament in Malibu, CA over the break. The Badgers defeated Ole Miss 74-57 before its championship game was cancelled due to wildfires in the area.
Prior to the tournament, Wisconsin had lost its last two games 67-66 to Wyoming and 67-53 at Marquette.
Wisconsin is led by senior guard Jolene Anderson who is averaging a Big Ten best 25.5 points while also grabbing a team-best 8.5 rebounds per game. Janase Banks, the only other Badger averaging double-figures with 11.3 points per game.
Up next for the Cavaliers after Wisconsin is Fairleigh Dickinson. Tip off for that game is 12 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
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