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Virginia Ends Season with 64-45 Loss to #10 North Carolina
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March 6, 2004
GREENSBORO, N.C.- The Virginia women’s basketball team ended its season on Saturday with a 64-45 loss to 10th-ranked North Carolina in the quarterfinal round of the 2004 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament.
The No. 7 seeded Virginia concluded their season at 13-16 overall, while the No. 2 seeded Tar Heels improved to 23-5 overall.
“Obviously, it wasn’t our best day,” said Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan. “We did a good job on the boards today with 18 offensive rebounds. I really feel like that was going to be the name of the game. We got very good shots, especially in the first half, and just weren’t able to put them down. We were missing shots that we routinely make.”
In the first half, UVa jumped on the scoreboard first and went ahead by five, 7-2 with 15:45 on the clock. UNC tied the game and went on a 14-2 run to close out the half. The Tar Heels entered the locker room with a 28-18 lead.
In the second half, UNC built its lead up to as many as 20 points, 45-25 with 13:09 to go. The Cavs cut the lead down to 13 points, 56-43 with 3:53 to play, but couldn’t pull it out.
“What was frustrating for me today was that we could not make shots,” Ryan added. “We could not finish today for some reason.”
In the final game of her career, senior Anna Prillaman (Midlothian, Va.) paced UVa with 11 points, including three treys. Junior LaTonya Blue (Baltimore, Md.) and freshman Siedah Williams (Cleveland, Ohio) chipped in 10 points each.
“They played well,” Prillaman said of UNC. “Personally, my performance was not good. It was definitely North Carolina who beat us. We didn’t beat ourselves today.”
The Cavaliers also set two ACC tourney records. UVa’s shooting percentage of 21.7 (13-60) is the lowest since UNC shot 24.7 in the 1996 tourney. The Cavaliers also netted the fewest field goals with 13.
Nikita Bell was the top Tar Heel with 18 points. Freshman Ivory Latta added 17 points, while Camille Little rounded out the double-figure scoring with 11 points.
Overall, UNCs out-rebounded the Cavs, 48-40.
Virginia’s 13-16 record is the first non-winning record in 26 seasons, since Ryan’s first year at UVa in 1978. The loss also snapped the Hoos’ chances of a 21st consecutive berth into the NCAA Tournament.
“It hurts a lot,” Ryan said of the snapped NCAA streak. “That streak is not about this team today. It’s about everybody else that brought us to this point. I feel very badly about that, and I apologize to all my alumnae that put us at this point. I still feel like we’re in pretty good shape (for next year). We have a lot of players coming back.”
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
1 2 - Final#7 seed Virginia (13-16) 18 27 - 45#2 seed North Carolina (23-5) 28 36 - 64