The Virginia women's basketball team earned a split of its two games over the weekend, defeating Florida State 77-54 at John Paul Jones Arena Sunday following an 86-80 loss to Maryland Friday.
Sunday's victory for the Cavaliers (18-6, 6-2 ACC) came fewer than 48 hours after their emotional loss at Maryland (25-2, 9-1 ACC). Virginia led the fourth-ranked Terrapins 59-51 with 11:25 to play but faltered down the stretch, as the Cavaliers suffered their second straight loss to the Terrapins. The two defeats at the hands of Maryland are the only losses for Virginia in the past 13 games.
The hangover for the Cavaliers was apparent Sunday as Florida State (15-9, 5-4 ACC) jumped out to a 9-0 lead with 17:37 to play in the opening period.
"I don't think people understand how much emotion and how much energy you use [in a close game]," senior point guard Sharneé Zoll said. "It's almost like getting beat by 30 is better. When you lose a game by two possessions, you sit there and look at every single possession, every mistake you made, every shot you missed, every layup, every box-out. You are just sitting there, like, 'Just at that one moment in time, if I could have remembered to do this, it would have been a totally different game.'"
Virginia, however, regained its composure and never let the Seminoles run out to an insurmountable margin. The Cavaliers battled back, and even though Virginia did not play its best basketball, Florida State took only a 1-point advantage into the locker room at halftime.
"I felt like we were emotionless to start the game," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "I worried in the locker room a little bit. We didn't seem to have a lot of pop. We didn't seem to have a lot of energy."
Junior guard Britnee Millner came off the bench in the first half and was a big reason why Virginia was able to stay within striking distance.
"I thought that a key thing for us in the first half was Britnee Millner," Ryan said. "I thought Britnee Millner went into the game and played her tail off, and it sort of brought the level of play up for everybody. I thought everybody kind of tried to match her energy."
Virginia looked like a completely different team in the second half, particularly on the defensive end. The Cavaliers held Florida State to 6-29 shooting in the second half, compared to 12 of 24 in the first.
"At halftime, we straightened it out," Ryan said. "We came out and totally turned around in terms of who we were. We wanted to play like who we were, not what an emotion was making us play like. And they did a great job in the second half of getting it up and down the floor, getting it in our tempo and not theirs and putting them away."
Virginia used a 19-2 run from the 12:14 mark to 5:25 in the second half to put the Seminoles away. Junior forward Lyndra Littles had 12 points in the stretch and finished with a game-high 23 points.
Junior center Aisha Mohammed earned her 10th double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore guard Monica Wright chipped in 14 points.
Zoll finished the game with 9 points and nine assists. Her second assist setting up Millner from behind the arc with 8:28 to go in the first half, however, had particular significance, as it gave Zoll 700 assists on her career. Zoll is the third player in ACC women's basketball history to obtain 700 assists, and after tallying seven more assists on the game to give her 707, she is now only 22 assists shy of Dawn Staley's ACC record 729 assists.
Obtaining 700 assists is "great," Zoll said. "It feels better to get a win."
This staggering number, however, does not reflect the level Zoll has elevated her game to in the last two months.
"I think that Sharneé's presence on the floor right now is just unsurpassed," Ryan said. "She plays at a pace that makes it difficult for every team in the country to play us. I just think that she understands how we need to play and what our tempo is."
Virginia returns to action Friday as it hosts third-ranked North Carolina at John Paul Jones Arena.
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