The Curious Case of Virginia's Mamadi Diane by Ben Gibson (Columnist)
February 23, 2009
Today's Must Reads

There are a million story lines every season in college basketball.

Every team has players who succeed unexpectedly and others who fail to live up to the hype.

But no one in the country has anything on the bizarre tale of Mamadi Diane.

Diane, a senior captain at the University of Virginia, had established a solid reputation in his first three years. After all, he is the man who scored the first points ever in the luxurious palace known as the John Paul Jones Arena. It was the beginning of Virginia's signature win against then-tenth-ranked Arizona.

Diane was 5-of-6 from behind the arc that game, and his hot touch all season long helped bring the Cavaliers from a predicted last-place finish in the conference all the way to a tie for the regular-season ACC crown with UNC in 2007.

It had Arizona Wildcat coach Lute Olsen beside himself in the press conference and the media desperately trying to figure out how to pronounce the kid's name (it's Dee-ah-nay, by the way).

Diane was the "third piece" to the J.R. Reynolds-Sean Singletary one-two punch. When Diane played well, Virginia was one of the top teams in the country. When he was off, however, they were vulnerable.

He was the future of Virginia, and the future was looking bright.

Diane knew he would have to take a bigger role on the team in 2007-08 with the departure of J.R. Reynolds. Considering how much both Reynolds and big man Jason Cain had developed under Coach Leitao, it appeared Diane would be the next in line to break out.

Well, the season came and went, and Diane did not break out. In fact, he seemed to sink.

Diane's numbers went up slightly between his sophomore and junior year (his PPG jumped from 9.6 to 11.8), but inconsistency plagued the swing man.

Here's an example:

Diane scored in double figures in five out of his first six ACC games, and scored 15 points or more in three of those contests.

But in his next seven games, Diane scored in double figures only once, when he had 20 against Boston College.

Then, in his last three games of the ACC regular season, Diane averaged nearly 14 PPG.

Inconsistency be thy name, Diane.

And then, after that mess of an ACC season, he had surgery over the offseason, which gave him a slow start in practice this year. Nobody wants to get hurt before their fourth year, but it was not career-threatening.

Diane returned to the court in full health, physically, but one must wonder if some of those bad performances were beginning to weigh on him mentally.

Diane's fall from the grace must be the biggest drop-off for a healthy player in college basketball this year.

Name another team captain (and poster-child for his team's media guide) who returned as the leading scorer but is now averaging 4.5 PPG.

Diane's scoring average has been more than cut in half from previous years, and the new three-point line gets a great deal of credit for this dramatic drop-off.

Diane, who has made 118 three-pointers in his career, is shooting 3-of-32 from behind the arc this season.

Let that sink in a moment; Virginia's long-range assassin is shooting nine percent from three-point land.

His overall numbers are not much better: He's at 35 percent from the field for the season, and has totals of 11 assists and 20 turnovers.

With the season already lost and his leader suffering, Virginia coach Dave Leitao made the difficult decision to bench his captain and keep him there.

While Virginia was taking down Clemson and Virginia Tech in big upsets, Diane could only watch from the bench and wonder what could have been.

So imagine everyone's surprise when the man who has missed four entire games this season (a captain who is averaging 17 minutes a game) re-emerged this past weekend against N.C. State.

The Cavaliers needed a lift after two sluggish efforts to begin both halves, and Leitao decided to roll the dice with "Mr. Risk-Reward" himself.

The result? Eleven points in 15 minutes of play, thanks to 5-of-6 shooting from the floor. It was only his third double-figure game of the season.

Diane put the team on his back and helped trim a 17-point deficit all the way down to one last Saturday, and although Virginia fans were disappointed with the loss, many had to feel happy for their veteran leader, who finally had a happy moment in a season most people would like to forget.

With a youth movement started for Virginia basketball, no one really knows how much time Diane will get down the stretch.

Will Leitao give him minutes that could be given to his "superstars of tomorrow," like Sylven Landesberg and Jeff Jones?

Mamadi Diane is not someone that will make national headlines, but his story is one that has mirrored the fate of Virginia basketball these past few seasons.

Leitao bet the bank on this Dematha Catholic graduate, yet Diane has not panned out like everyone had hoped. It hurts when it happens to such a good kid with a great attitude, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Diane's great game against the Wolfpack may indicate he has turned the corner and is ready to end his career on a positive note.

Maybe he will play the role of Jason Rogers or Billy Campbell, forgotten seniors who miraculously stepped up their games at the end of the season for Virginia. Maybe this is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Let's be honest, though: Cavalier fans have heard that one before.
 

U.Va. notes U.VA. NOTES
By Staff Reports
Published: February 25, 2009

Coming attraction
Want an early look at basketball recruit Tristan Spurlock? Then stop by Benedictine High's gym Friday night.

Spurlock, a 6-8 forward who signed with U.Va. in November, is a senior at Word of Life Christian Academy in Springfield. Word of Life, hoping to add a game to its schedule, sent an e-mail to other independent high schools in the state, and Benedictine responded.

Coach Sean McAloon liked the idea of his team's playing again before next week's state tournament, and so the Cadets (17-9) will host Word of Life at 7 p.m. Friday.

Spurlock, who's in his first year at Word of Life, had 43 points and 10 rebounds last week in a loss to IMG Academy of Bradenton, Fla. He was 23 for 23 from the line.

Final piece
Look for U.Va. to announce the hiring of Bob Trott this week. Trott, 54, will fill the last slot on football coach Al Groh's staff and is expected to oversee the linebackers.

Trott, who spent the past four seasons as a Cleveland Browns defensive assistant, played at North Carolina when Groh was an assistant coach there. They later worked together at the Air Force Academy, under Bill Parcells, and with the New York Jets and the New England Patriots.

A native of Concord, N.C., Trott has been a defensive coordinator for five colleges: Arkansas, Duke, Clemson, Baylor and Louisiana-Monroe. Moreover, he's well-versed in U.Va.'s 3-4 defense.

Head of the class
Kevin Parks, a junior tailback from Mount Ulla, N.C., on Monday became the first football player in the Class of 2010 to commit to U.Va.

The 5-7 185-pounder was named all-state in 2008 after helping West Rowan High win the Class 3-A championship. In the title game, Parks ran for 219 yards and three TDs in a 35-7 rout of West Craven. He had an 81-yard TD run on his team's first play.

He finished the season with 2,864 yards and 43 touchdowns rushing. As a freshman, Parks rushed for 1,721 yards and 23 TDs. He had 2,536 yards and 33 TDs as a sophomore.

Parks also had scholarship offers from East Carolina and Illinois, but "there was just something about U.Va. that I felt I needed to be there," he said.

Off the mark
Redshirt freshman Sammy Zeglinski leads the Cavs with 32 3-pointers this season. When he goes to the foul line, though, the 6-0 point guard struggles.

Zeglinski has made only 20 of his 35 free throws this season - 57.1 percent. He was 0 for 2 in U.Va.'s loss at N.C. State on Saturday.

"There are those guys that you look at on the court that shoot pretty well [but] don't cash in as much as you think they should at the line," coach Dave Leitao said. "I think Jamil's another guy that should be, for all intents and purposes, shooting better from the free throw line."

Junior forward Jamil Tucker, who's made 28 treys this season, is 24 for 36 (66.7 percent) from the line.

Leitao said Zeglinski's mechanics are a problem from the line.

"He shoots a couple of different releases on it, and I think that costs him," Leitao said. "I think that the best way to try to get past that - and I told him there's no way he should be under a 75 percent free throw shooter - is thousands and thousands and thousands of reps."

Two players arrested
Safeties Corey Mosley and Ausar Walcott are scheduled to appear Friday morning in Albemarle County General District Court.

U.Va. police arrested Mosley and Walcott around 1 a.m. Sunday at a dance at the school's Student Activities Building. According to police, Mosley was charged with disorderly conduct "after he became combative during the event and refused to comply with event staff and [U.Va. police]." Walcott was charged with obstruction of justice after he allegedly tried to interfere with police as they were taking Mosley into custody.

Mosley, a Henrico High graduate who started in Virginia's secondary last season, will be a redshirt sophomore this fall. Walcott will be a redshirt freshman. - Jeff White
 

Playing through pain
Jeff White
Feb 24, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Back in October, it wasn’t clear when or if juniors Calvin Baker and Jamil Tucker would be able to play basketball for U.Va. this season.

Baker had a stress fracture in his left foot and needed crutches to get around. Tucker’s right shoulder kept popping out. They sat out the Cavaliers’ early practices, but both returned before the opener, and neither has missed a game this season.

Tucker (7.9 ppg) and Baker (7.8) rank fourth and fifth, respectively, in scoring for the Cavaliers. Baker, a 6-2 guard, is second in steals and third in assists, and Tucker, a 6-9 forward, is fourth in rebounding. Baker has started 17 games; Tucker, four.

Which is not to say they’re healthy. Baker told reporters Saturday, after U.Va.’s loss at N.C. State, that he’ll have surgery on his foot after the season. Tucker’s shoulder has stayed in place so far, but it still bothers him, Virginia coach Dave Leitao said Monday.

“He’s got a foot issue, too, that he’s trying to work himself through,” Leitao said.

Shoulder surgery might be an option for Tucker after the season, Leitao said, but “I don’t think any decision like that’s been made or completely discussed. What we’re trying to do now is just manage it to get him through to the end of the race.”

Virginia (3-9, 9-14) has four regular-season games left, all in the ACC, starting Thursday night against Miami (5-8, 16-10).

Baker’s shooting percentages have dropped significantly since his sophomore season, particularly from 3-point range. He shot 37.3 percent from beyond the arc in 2007-08; he’s at 27.1 this season.

Asked if the foot injury has affected Baker’s play, Leitao said, “I think it has in the fact that physically he doesn’t move as fluidly or as swiftly as he’s accustomed to, particularly on defense. And there are those days when he feels better than others, and his body treats him well, and so he’s able to do the things that he’s comfortable with. And I think that adds to your confidence when you can do that. And there are a lot of days that he doesn’t, and it affects his confidence.

“All of those things matter when you’re trying to play as well as you can play. And when something is not there that you’re supposed to be able to trust, some part of your body, that affects it. But he’s been a trouper about it. He hasn’t really missed practice as a result. Sometimes we hold him out for parts of practice, but it’s something he’s been able to grin and bear with and, as best he can, to get through.”

 

Cavaliers seek championship
Team heads to College Park, seeks to match women with second consecutive ACC title
Chloe Newschwander, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, February 25 2009

With a win this weekend, the Virginia men would earn their ninth ACC title in the last ten years and their 11th overall. The Virginia men’s swimming and diving team heads to College Park, Md. today for the ACC Championships, at which the team will fight to achieve the same success the women’s team saw last week when it claimed a conference title.

The men, who hold an unblemished 5-0 conference record, will attempt to replicate their own scores from last season in addition to replicating the women’s scores from last week.

At last year’s championships, the men’s team won its 11th ACC title and its ninth in the last 10 years, finishing 273 points ahead of runner-up North Carolina. A championship for the men this season would mark the second time in the program’s history that both the men and women repeated as ACC champions in consecutive years. The two teams also claimed back-to-back conference titles in 2003 and 2004.

Potentially helping Virginia reach its goal is sophomore Matt McLean, who has produced impressive times in his two years and who was recognized with the Most Valuable Swimmer Award at last year’s ACC Championship meet in Florida. His consistent performance this season — McLean owns one of Virginia’s top two times in the 200, 500, 1000 and 1650 meter freestyle events — will make him “a real leader in the pool” during the championship, Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said.

Even as young swimmers like McLean take a leadership position on the team, however, Virginia still looks to its veterans to set the standard.

“The team always calls on their fourth- and fifth-years to really step up and lead by example,” senior Ryan Hurley said. “It’s definitely expected of me, and I feel the pressure to swim very well. I’ve been taught by so many great older swimmers that this is what you do and it’s kind of become routine.”

Hurley will compete in the 100 breast, the 200 breast and the 200 IM, as well as two relays in which he will swim the breaststroke legs.
Relays “are critically important towards team momentum,” Bernardino said. “There’s the opportunity there to get off to a great start and see a lot of people swim, and for the team to gain confidence based on the performances of the athletes in the relays.”

Virginia’s chief competitors this weekend likely will be North Carolina and Florida State, both of which possess swimmers with proven ability and experience. Florida State’s 2007 championship is the only non-Virginia title on the men’s side since 1996, which was North Carolina’s last conference-winning season during a six-title streak. This season, both squads only have one conference loss — courtesy of the Cavaliers.

Judging from Virginia’s history and its perfect conference record this season, it would not be surprising if the men were to repeat as ACC champions. Bernardino, though, said he will not allow the team to become too confident.

“They’ve done a good job at not letting their egos and their heads get in the way of the success of the team,” Bernardino said. “I think they’ve really done a nice job at keeping team and team performance as the focus versus individual performance. I think they understand the better they perform as individuals the more it means to the team, so that’s how we’ve tried to approach that.”

If the team needs any motivation, it only needs to look to its runner-up finish at the 2007 ACC Championships, which broke a streak of eight consecutive conference titles.

“Every time we start getting away from our goal a little bit, Mark reminds us of what happened in 2007,” Hurley said. “I don’t need more than to hear that year to get me back on track because it was not a good experience, and I know we’re so much better than we were that year. We’re more focused and more driven.”

For Virginia, anything less than its strongest performance at the ACC Championships will be unacceptable.

“The bottom line is you can’t make excuses for your performance once you’re on the blocks,” Bernardino said. “As I’m very fond of telling them ‘It don’t matter how you feel, it’s time to perform’, and I don’t care how they feel on game day or race day. The bottom line is, if you’re going to race, it doesn’t matter how you feel. You feel great — that’s the only thing you need to tell me.”

 

Roberts, Cavs reign against in-state rival
In first college start against Tribe, Roberts allows no runs, fans eight; Virginia stays opportunistic in offensive onslaught
Conor Wakeman, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, February 25 2009

Sophomore designated hitter Phil Gosselin broke out of an 0-16 funk yesterday, going 2-4 with 3 RBIs in an 11-1 victory against William & Mary at Davenport Field. The win improved Virginia to 4-0 on the season. Virginia baseball won its 65th game in 96 tries against in-state rival William & Mary yesterday night, cruising to an 11-1 victory. The win also improves Virginia coach Brian O’Connor’s record against the Tribe to 4-1.

Freshman pitcher Will Roberts highlighted the mid-week affair, facing only 18 hitters in five innings to complement Virginia’s early offensive surge. Robert said he “was a little bit nervous,” but after appearing in relief against Bucknell during the weekend he felt like he had “kind of been there before. It wasn’t too much different.”

The team’s four- and five-run second and third innings helped to ease the tension of making a start at the collegiate level, Roberts said.
“I’m just glad the team came out and played well,” he said. “We scored some runs and took a lot of pressure off of me.”

Roberts played high school baseball in Richmond, where he developed the precision and level-headedness that drew the attention of the Virginia program, O’Connor said. Roberts showcased both qualities yesterday.

“We were really excited when he decided to come to school here because he’s been known in high school as a strike-thrower, somebody who really attacks the bat on the mound,” O’Connor said. “And he proved that tonight in his first college start.”

Roberts settled in his rhythm right from the first pitch, sitting down the first three Tribe hitters he faced on three groundballs. Roberts gave up only three hits and one walk on the night while striking out eight.

Roberts “was down in the zone the entire time he pitched,” O’Connor said. “He was in complete command the entire time, and whether you’re 18 or 22 years old, [if] you do that on the mound, you’re going to give your team a chance to win.”

The defense for Virginia (5-0) showed some early-season rust, committing two errors, one of which — a mishandled ground ball and errant throw by junior shortstop Tyler Cannon — contributed to the lone William & Mary run. The score came too late for the Tribe, however: after Roberts and the Virginia offense staked a 10-1 lead.

“Basically, I just hit my spots with my fastball the whole day,” Roberts said. “I was just trying to keep them off balance [mixing speeds and location]. Once we got the big lead I could just hammer strikes and they really didn’t have a choice but to swing.”

Unlike the first four games of the season, in which the Cavaliers spread six home runs, Tuesday’s game against the Tribe (3-2) featured other aspects of what O’Connor called Virginia’s “opportunistic offense.”

“We did hit quite a few home runs this weekend,” O’Connor said. “But we’re still going to have that kind of attitude offensively where we’re going to take the extra base, we’re going to bunt a guy over when we need to.”

Though Tribe sophomore starting pitcher Tim Norton retired the first three Virginia batters in the first inning, he struggled after sophomore right fielder Dan Grovatt flied out to start the second. Norton proceeded to walk the bases loaded before sophomore left fielder John Barr lined a two-run single to left center. Sophomore second baseman Corey Hunt laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Barr and junior catcher Franco Valdes to second and third, respectively. Two infield singles by sophomore center fielder Jarrett Parker and sophomore DH Phil Gosselin scored Barr and Valdes.

Five Cavaliers recorded two hits each, and four of those five players batted in 10 of the team’s 11 runs.

“It’s all about the team,” Gosselin said. “It’s just contagious ­— for the second and third inning, everybody was getting up there and having good at-bats for the team, and put the team first. Like coach always says, good things are going to happen.”

After struggling through the team’s first four games, Gosselin had two hits in four at-bats, driving in three runs, including a two-run outfield single to cap off the five-run third inning.

“It felt great to finally be able to contribute,” Gosselin said. “The team did great this weekend; I would have liked to help out, but we won. That’s all that matters. Tonight I was able to come through in the clutch a couple times — it felt good.”

O’Connor said Gosselin will be one of the team’s best offensive players, and an 0-16 slump “can happen in the first four games.” He also explained, though, that it’s not nearly the kind of production the team expects from Gosselin as the season progresses.

“He got himself into a little bit of a funk; sometimes you lose your confidence, but I have complete confidence in [Gosselin] and his teammates do too,” O’Connor said. “So no question he’s going to do some great hitting for us this year. [His hitting against William & Mary] was great to see because he needed that.”

 

Cavaliers Turn Back Mount St. Mary's 10-2
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 02/24/2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—Junior midfielder Brian Carroll scored the first three goals of the game to lift second-ranked Virginia to a 10-2 win over Mount St. Mary’s Tuesday night at Klöckner Stadium for the Cavaliers’ fourth win in a row.

“Give Mount St. Mary’s credit for playing hard,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia after the game. “I thought our defense actually got better as the game went on, but I thought they were pretty good all night in terms of picking the ball up especially, trying to limit them to one possession.”

Carroll scored on UVa’s first two shots of the game in the opening two-and-a-half minutes as the Cavaliers were never really threatened the rest of the game. Virginia had a sizable advantage in shots, outshooting the Mount 60-16.

After the opening barrage the game slowed to a more deliberate pace as Mount St. Mary’s put together many long possessions.

“They clearly wanted to take some time off the clock ... and I don’t have any problem with that,” said Starsia. “It can be a little bit frustrating when you’re not scoring and they’re holding the ball, so it’s not quite what you hope for but it was a workman-like win at the end of the day.”

The Virginia defense held the Mount scoreless until early in the fourth quarter until Cody Lehrer scored on a two-man advantage. Lehrer’s goal came on just the 10th shot of the game by Mount St. Mary’s.

Once Carroll had given Virginia a 3-0 lead in the opening minute of the second quarter six different Cavaliers scored the team’s final seven goals. Shamel Bratton tallied twice for his first multi-goal game of the season. Midfielder Nick Elsmo and longstick middie Mike Timms both scored their first goal of the season. Timms’ goal in particular was a terrific example of staying with the play. After committing a turnover on a faceoff he swatted the ball away from Brendan Flanagan in front of the cage, picked up the loose ball and sent a shot past a surprised T.C. DiBartolo for the second goal of his career.

For his part DiBartolo was outstanding in goal and finished with a career-high 21 saves. In last season’s game against the Cavaliers he made 18 saves while playing just the first half.

Faceoff specialist Chad Gaudet helped the Cavaliers gain possession by winning 11 of 16 faceoffs. Virginia scored two goals immediately after winning a faceoff, including Gaudet's assist on Shamel Bratton's first goal of the game.

Adam Ghitelman recorded four saves before giving way to freshman Rob Fortunato for the final 2:24.

Virginia travels to Central New York Friday to face the top-ranked Syracuse Orange at 7 pm at the Carrier Dome. WINA AM 1070, the flagship station of Virginia athletics, will broadcast the game in the Charlottesville area.

Mt. St. Mary’s 0-0-0-2—2 record: 0-1
Virginia 2-3-3-2—10 record: 4-0
att—809

Scoring (G-A)— MSM: Cody Lehrer 1-0, Keith McKinley 1-0, Christian Kellett 0-1. V: Brian Carroll 3-0, Shamel Bratton 2-1, Rhamel Bratton 1-1, Nick Elsmo 1-0, Gavin Gill 1-0, Steele Stanwick 1-0, Mike Timms 1-0, Garrett Billings 0-2, Chad Gaudet 0-1, Adam Ghitelman 0-1, George Huguely 0-1.

Goalie Summary—MSM: T.C. DiBartolo 60 mins., 21 saves, 10 goals allowed. V: Adam Ghitelman 57:36 mins., 4 saves, 2 goals allowed; Rob Fortunato 2:24, 0 svs., 0 GA.

Shots: MSM—16, V—60
Ground Balls: MSM—32, V—49
Clearing: MSM—18x28, V—21x24
Faceoffs: MSM—15, V—11
Penalties: MSM—3-2:30, V—2-2:00
EMO: MSM—1x1, V—1x2

 

Virginia manhandles Mountaineers
Starsia displeased with slow start, though Virginia dominates statistics, scoreboard; team unhappy with overall offensive efficiency as top-ranked Orangemen loom Friday night
Jack Bird, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, February 25 2009

Junior midfielder Brian Carroll had a hat trick last night in a 10-2 victory against Mount Saint Mary’s. Next up for the Cavs is Syracuse, who bounced Virginia from the Final Four last season. Virginia again defended its home turf last night with a sound defeat of Mount Saint Mary’s, 10-2.

While the score may indicate a one-sided affair, other statistics suggest an even more Cavalier-dominated match-up. Virginia outshot its opponent 60-16 and won more than twice as many faceoffs. The overwhelming number of shots by Virginia (4-0) speaks to its impressive offensive ability. With only 10 goals, though, it also means the Cavaliers struggled to play as efficiently as they could have from the opening whistle.

“It’s not acceptable,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “I told Danny [Glading], Garrett [Billings], and Steele [Stanwick] that we were just too casual early in the game. We have always run our offense through our attack. They get the bulk of the credit when things go well and they have to bear the burden when we don’t perform to whatever standard we have for ourselves. We’ve got to hit some [of] our shots ... I just don’t think we played, coming out of the blocks, the way we should be playing.”

Solid fundamentals and good decision-making were positives for the Cavaliers last night. While Mount Saint Mary’s (0-1) struggled to establish a possession long enough to find a rhythm, Virginia played on the other end of the spectrum in terms of overall fundamentals. The Cavaliers cleared the ball 21 times on 24 attempts to bring it out of their end of the field, while Mount Saint Mary’s was only 18 for 28. The Cavaliers also enjoyed a 49-32 ground ball advantage over the Mountaineers.

“You can move the ball four times and someone could be wide open, and if one person doesn’t move their feet to make a good pass the play is dead,” senior attackman Danny Glading said. “It just takes the whole team to have team chemistry and work on offense to get good shots.”

By way of solid throwing and catching, the Cavaliers achieved lengthy possessions that let them keep the ball out of their opponent’s sticks, while simultaneously allowing Virginia to take numerous shots.

Unlike other sports where a missed shot often leads to a transfer of possession, lacrosse rewards possession of a missed shot to the team closest to the ball when it leaves play — almost always the offense if the team has smart positioning. Long possessions can therefore be peppered with shot attempts — an aspect of the game Virginia capitalized on during last night’s game.

“You don’t get punished in lacrosse for missing the cage,” Starsia said. “As a coach you have to strike a balance between wanting every good shot to go in the goal and understanding that, at this level, good shooters are shooting for the edge of the cage ... You don’t want to discourage guys from shooting. We just have to get it around the cage. So generating a lot of shots is generally a positive statistic for a team.”

While the Mountaineers managed several longer possessions as the game progressed, even those lacked any threatening strikes at goal. Many offensive Mount Saint Mary’s possessions were truncated by poor passing and catching — a weakness no doubt exacerbated by aggressive Cavalier defense.

“This year we kind of changed our [defensive] philosophy a little bit,” Virginia junior midfielder Max Pomper said. “We feel like we have a lot of good athletes on the edges and we have been trying to go after athletes more than we usually have. We are pretty confident in [sophomore goalie Adam Ghitelman’s] goaltending — he’s backing us up pretty well. We’ve been pushing out a little bit — we enjoy playing that way, we enjoy playing fast.”

Virginia held a shutout going into the fourth quarter, and it took a Mountaineer extra-man situation at the beginning of the last period for Mount Saint Mary’s to finally find the back of the net. The Mountaineers scored again on a fast break less than two minutes later for their final goal of the evening.

With the win, Virginia continued its unblemished start to its season. The first real challenge of 2009 for the Cavaliers now looms on the horizon, however, as the No. 2 Cavaliers gear up to play No. 1 Syracuse Friday in the Carrier Dome.

 

Cavs knock off ACC leaders
By The Daily Progress Staff
Published: February 25, 2009

In Tallahassee, Fla., for the second time this season, the Virginia women’s basketball team knocked off a ranked team on the road with a furious rally.

Virginia, down as many as 11 points in the first half, mounted a late charge to upend No. 11 Florida State 68-63 at the Tucker Center.

Thanks to second-half scoring flurry, the Cavaliers (22-7, 8-5 ACC) solidified their plans for the upcoming ACC tournament — No. 22 UVa locked down the No. 5 seed in next week’s event and secured a first-round date with the 12th-seeded team. Virginia mounted a comeback to beat then-No. 6 Tennessee earlier this season.

“This win just shows that this team really has a lot of character. This team has a lot of poise,” said Virginia senior Lyndra Littles. “With this team, when it gets hard, we just have a will to win.”

The loss spoiled a celebration party for Florida State (23-6, 11-2). The Seminoles could have clinched a share of the league crown with a victory.

Virginia spoiled the party after halftime as Aisha Mohammed, Monica Wright and Lyndra Littles got on track offensively. For the game, the trio combined for 56 of Virginia’s points and 28 rebounds.

It was not until there was 3:27 left in the game, however, that the Cavaliers took the lead as point guard Ariana Moorer connected on a layup.

The team’s exchanged the lead until Littles collected an alley-oop pass from Wright and flipped an easy basket in, making it 61-60 with 1:29 left.

“It was a great pass from Moni,” Littles said.

Wright added a pivotal pull-up jumper with 44 seconds left, giving the Cavaliers a three-point cushion. Moorer and Littles combined for three free throws in the final minute to solidify the win.

Littles, who nailed all eight of her free throws, finished the game with a team-best 24 points and nine rebounds. Wright, despite missing 12 of 18 shots from the field, added 17 points.

The Cavaliers close out the regular season Sunday at Georgia Tech.

 

No. 21 Virginia upsets No. 11 Florida State in Tallahassee
Published: Wednesday, February 25 2009

Virginia’s first in-conference road upset of the season could not have been more timely.

In the Cavaliers’ final game of the regular season against a ranked opponent, they overcame an 11-point first-half deficit to down No. 11 Florida State 68-63 last night in Tallahassee, Fla. for the Seminoles’ second conference loss of the season. Senior center Aisha Mohammed, senior forward Lyndra Littles and junior guard Monica Wright combined for 56 of the team’s 68 points and 28 of 45 rebounds.

The Cavaliers (22-7, 8-5 ACC) took their first lead of 57-56 with 3:27 remaining in regulation on a bucket from freshman guard Ariana Moorer. The two teams then traded leads three times before Florida State (23-6, 11-2 ACC) surrendered seven unanswered points, giving Virginia a 66-60 lead.

Florida State sophomore guard Courtney Ward then knocked down a three-pointer with 10 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to three; out of the ensuing timeout, however, Moorer connected with Mohammed for a fast-break layup to put the game out of the Seminoles’ reach.

Wright’s 17 points gave her a new Virginia single-season record 615 for the season, passing Heather Burge’s mark of 612 in 1993. Mohammed added 15 points and 11 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season, while Littles led all scorers with 24 points while also contributing nine rebounds. Ward led Florida State’s scoring with 18 points, but senior guard Tanae Davis-Cain was the only other Seminole in double-figure points with 13.

Overall, Virginia out-rebounded Florida State 45-31, including 20-10 off the offensive glass, leading to a difference of 21-10 in second chance points.

Virginia plays its season finale Sunday against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga., in advance of the ACC Tournament March 5 to 8.

—compiled by Paul Montana