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Virginia Beats Maine for Third Place, 72-62
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Nov. 12, 2004
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Virginia women’s basketball team utilized its three-point shooting and free throw skills to pull out a 72-62 win over Maine in the Third Place Game of the Women’s Sports Foundation Classic on Friday.
“We obviously came out tonight with a lot more offensive punch,” said UVa head coach Debbie Ryan. “The game goes a lot better when you’re not nervous. Our pressure hurt them early. We got a lot of players in (the game), and we got a lot of players some really valuable (playing) time.”
In the first half, UVa took command of the game early and never trailed. The Cavaliers built up a 12-point lead, 32-20 with 2:23 to go in the half, as senior Brandi Teamer (Joliet, Ill.) scored 10 points and sophomore Brenna McGuire (Winchester, Mass.) added three treys. UVa led by seven at intermission, 35-28.
In the second half, Maine came out with consecutive buckets to cut the lead to two points, 35-33, but that’s as close as the Black Bears would get in the stanza. UVa re-built its lead back up to 12 points, 62-50 with 3:24 to go. The pesky Black Bears whittled away to come within three points, 65-62 with 53 seconds on the clock. Freshman point guard Sharnee Zoll (Marlboro, N.J.) nailed four free throws in the final seconds to help seal the Cavalier victory.
“I think Sharnee was so nervous last night (in the opener), that you didn’t see anything about Sharnee Zoll,” Ryan said. “Tonight I think we really saw what we’re going to see in the future. She’s a player that can penetrate, pick, run the offense. I thought she did a great job.”
Senior LaTonya Blue (Baltimore, Md.) paced all players with 17 points, while Teamer finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for the 21st double-double of her career. McGuire finished with 12 points, all from three-point range. Senior Jocelyn Logan-Friend (Cheverly, Md.) added 11 points and a career-high six blocks.
“We did a good job of spreading the offense out,” Blue said.
“I thought `Thank God, my first game’s out of the way,'” Zoll said. “That first game is so hard to get through. You really can’t think about the game, because you’re thinking about your nerves. I knew I had to come out (tonight) and play my game.”
UVa, which went 0-3 from long range last night against Arizona State, connected on 10 three-pointers, one shy of the school record.
Maine had three players in double digits, paced by Missy Traversi’s 17 points.
Overall, Maine out-rebounded Virginia, 37-34.
Virginia returns home to University Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 16 for an exhibition game against UMMC Ekateringburg at 7 p.m.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
1 2 - FinalVirginia (1-1) 35 37 - 72Maine (0-2) 28 34 - 62