Game 22: Virginia

Fresh off our big win on Monday it's down I-64 to Charlottesville for our annual battle with Virginia. We have won four-straight against the Cavaliers including two at their place. This will be a big test in terms of the team's psyche as we will see if the win over Duke still lingers in their heads or if that feeling went away Tuesday morning.

Virginia is 13-4 and 2-0 in the ACC and has won seven-straight games. They have lost to George Washington, South Carolina, Hartford and UConn. The Hartford loss was in Hawaii after two days of hoops. Like us they have beaten Wake Forest, but they only won by 19.

The Cavaliers score 73.9 points per game, while only allowing 59.9. The most they have given up this year is 83 and they haven't allowed more than 57 in over a month. They play straight man-to-man but will press off of inbounds plays and then will try to trap the guard in the corner. The key is for the guard to come off the corner to the middle to receive the ball and then slice through the middle of the press to find the open players running down the court as the press is a 2-1-1-1. They shoot 45% from the floor and nearly 40% from three-point land. Opponents shoot 40% and 30%, respectively. They aren't a great rebounding team as they outrebound opponents 38.8-34.7. They are turnover prone too.

Monica Wright leads the team in scoring (17.6), shot attempts (250), steals (46) and blocks (11). She can do everything and it appears that Debbie Ryan is now running the offense through her. She tends to be over aggressive on defense and could get into foul trouble. Lyndra Littles is second on the team in scoring at 15.9 and second in rebounding at 5.7. She will shoot the three if left open. Littles has been hampered by a knee injury lately and as a result has not started the last two games. Littles is their main post threat considering she missed four games and is still third on the team in shot attempts. Their other post presence is 6-3 Aisha Mohammed, who missed last year with a knee injury. She is third in scoring (12.6) and first in rebounding (9.1). She doesn't shoot threes and is not a great free throw shooter. Neither one of their post players are shot blockers either. Paulisha Kellem is one of two starting guards for them. She likes to slash to the hoop and create off the dribble and may take a three if left open. Their PG is Sharnee Zoll, who has really become a distributor this season as she is only averaging 8.1 ppg. She is their top three-point threat, but will also try to break players off the dribble to get into the lane. Enoge Stovall is the first sub off the bench (and may start due to Littles' injury) and is not much of an offense threat.

We need to attack their posts and make smart decisions with the ball to put this game away early. If Littles doesn't start I can see us starting the game in zone to counteract the four-guard line up. If she does start then Toliver gets Zoll, Coleman on Wright, Strickland on Kellem, Langhorne on Mohammed and Harper on Littles. Virginia can give us fits if we let them hang around. I want to slam the door on them early so that the ladies can rest up for the press that awaits them from Georgia Tech on Sunday.

If you aren't going to the game then you can watch it on ComcastSportsNet Plus.