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Video Highlights from the Tennessee Game
Senior guard Britnee Millner recently checked in with VirginiaSports.com to talk about her game-winning free throw that upset sixth-ranked Tennessee Monday night, the team’s trip to Knoxville and the upcoming game at Old Dominion (Friday, 7 p.m.)
Question: When you went to the free throw line with a chance to put Virginia up by one or two points with just a few seconds left in the game, what was going through your mind?
Millner: I prayed to God to take me to a happy place [laughs]. I just really wanted to be able to put myself and my teammates into that position to win the game.
Question: And how about when the first free throw went through the net?
Millner: I was very relieved and then I went over to Coach Ryan and she told me to relax. I took the second free throw and missed, but the rebound did allow some more time to run off the clock.
Question: The night before the game, the team took a trip to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, where Coach Ryan was inducted over the summer. How was that experience?
Millner: It was surreal. Normally you go into a place like that and explore, and you see a lot of information about a lot of people you don’t know. But for us, to know that Coach Ryan is a part of that Hall of Fame, it made us want to go out the next night and make sure her position was solidified even more with a victory.
Question: Did you have a feeling that it would be such a close game with the Lady Vols?
Millner: Well, I felt like we matched up well with them. Tennessee has a great history behind it but so do we. I had a feeling it was going to be anyone’s game.
Question: Was winning that game one of the most memorable moments of your career so far?
Millner: It’s probably the top moment in my life so far. To go there and face a Pat Summitt-coached team and win was a dream come true.
Question: Talk about the play of teammate Monica Wright so far this season.
Millner: Monica is an amazing talent. Granted basketball is a team sport, but to have somebody on your team that leaves everything she has on the court for you and your team is something that sparks us all.
Question: You face Old Dominion on Friday, a team that knocked you out of the NCAA Tournament last season on an overtime buzzer-beater. Does that play a factor?
Millner: It’s definitely going to be on our minds before the game. But as soon as the ball tips, there will be no history. It will be us trying to make ourselves better and hopefully add on to this streak that we are on.