In the wake of an extremely emotional week in women’s basketball, two ranked conference rivals faced off Friday evening in John Paul Jones Arena. While Virginia coach Debbie Ryan, as well as other coaches and players from around the NCAA, dealt with the passing of N.C. State coach Kay Yow, Ryan was beset with another emotional experience as her then-No. 18 squad came from behind to beat then-No. 8 Maryland, 89-81.
“It’s been a really hard week for me,” Ryan said. “I really can’t tell you what made the difference tonight. All I know is that my team was down eight at halftime ... We made a couple of adjustments at halftime ... and it just worked out.”
Three Virginia athletes — junior guard Monica Wright, senior center Aisha Mohammed and senior forward Lyndra Littles — dominated with outstanding offensive performances.
While Wright struggled during the first half on only 2 for 12 shooting, she found a way to finish the game with 28 points and five assists. Wright, though, despite her impressive performance, did not lead the Cavaliers in scoring. In just 31 minutes, Littles scored a game-high 30 points.
“I was focused and I think the rest of the team was focused,” Littles said. “And that’s what I was thinking — we are not going to lose this game.”
Mohammed, meanwhile, notched her eighth double-double this season with 19 points and 16 rebounds — as many rebounds as any two other players on the floor combined.
“It’s like a freight train,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said of Mohammed’s play.
Wright, Littles and Mohammed accounted for 77 of Virginia’s 89 points.
“Between Littles and Wright and Mohammed, we had no answer,” Frese said. “They were physically stronger than us and they made us pay for it.”
The Cavaliers, however, still had to overcome an eight-point halftime deficit; Maryland shot 59 percent from the field in the first half. When Virginia’s defense clamped down in the second half, it held the Terrapins to 40 percent from the floor.
“We just really talked about the field goal percentage defense [at halftime],” Ryan said. “That was really the difference in the game. The turnovers weren’t that bad, [and] the rebounds were completely even at halftime.”
One reason for the Cavaliers’ marked improvement after halftime was an increased presence in the post from Mohammed and other players.
“I felt like we got our feet in the paint a lot better in the second half,” Ryan said. “We did a better job defensively and we rebounded the ball pretty well. I mean, Aisha Mohammed is a monster.”
As the Cavaliers started to turn the tide, the team also started to feed off crowd noise.
“It was electric,” Ryan said. “The fans have been so good to us this year. They have been just absolutely fabulous all year long. I know that they were really disappointed [after the loss to Florida State]. I told the team that we owed our fans a great game tonight.”
Virginia continued its strong performance at home Sunday afternoon by routing Longwood. The Cavaliers topped the Lancers 88-50, benefitting from 17 and 15 point performances respectively from Littles and senior guard Kristen London.
Virginia will resume conference play Thursday, when the Cavaliers tip off against Duke in JPJ at 7 p.m.
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