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Virginia Hosts Wake Forest Friday on Senior Night
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CHARLOTTESVILLE – Virginia plays its final regular-season home contest on Friday (Feb. 24) when it hosts Wake Forest at John Paul Jones Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., and the game will be televised by the ACC’s Regional Sports Networks (Comcast SportsNet in the Charlottesville area). Additionally, the game will be broadcast over the airwaves on WINA 1070 AM. That broadcast, along with live statistics, is available at VirginiaSports.com.
A list of TV affiliates can be found here. The game can also be viewed online on ESPN3.
Seniors Ariana Moorer (Woodbridge, Va.) and Chelsea Shine (Wayne, Pa.) and manager Rachael Cho will be honored prior to the game as part of Senior Night. The senior class will also be featured in a postgame video.
Virginia (19-9, 7-7 ACC) sits alone in sixth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings with two regular-seasons games left. Wake Forest (16-11, 6-8 ACC) is one game behind the Cavaliers in the standings.
Moorer continues to lead the Wahoos in scoring, averaging 13.5 points per game. The All-ACC candidate and last season’s ACC Sixth Player of the Year, Moorer has 1,156 points throughout her four-year career and with 14 more points would move into the top-20 for scoring in school history (former Cavalier guard Sharneé Zoll is No. 20 with 1,169 points from 2005-08).
Shine could not be any closer to the 1,000-point milestone, as she enters Friday’s game with 999 career points. Shine is also the Cavaliers’ active career leader in rebounds, having pulled down 601.
Shine and Moorer, along with sophomore Ataira Franklin (Bowie, Md.) have started all 28 of the Cavaliers’ contests in 2011-12. Franklin averages 12.0 points per game and has connected on a team-high 36 3-pointers.
As a team, the Cavaliers continue to excel on the defensive end of the floor, having now held 20 opponents to less than 60 points this season. Only the 1974-75 and 1980-81 squads held more opponents, 22, to less than 60 points in a single season.
UVa is ranked first in the ACC and 21st in the nation in scoring defense, holding opponents to 53.1 points per game. The Cavaliers rank fifth in the nation in steals per game (13.6).
Junior Lexie Gerson (Fort Washington, Pa.) ranks second in the conference and 15th in the nation in steals per game, averaging 3.2. Gerson also adds 8.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game for the ‘Hoos.
Virginia leads the all-time series with Wake Forest, 61-4, but two of those four losses have come in the last two seasons. In the teams’ last meeting – in the first round of the 2011 ACC Tournament – Wake Forest prevailed, 74-68.
In games played in Charlottesville, Virginia holds a 28-1 record vs. the Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest is led by Lakevia Boykin’s 11.9 points per game and is coming off a win at Clemson, 63-51. In all, the Demon Deacons have won four of their last five games with wins at Boston College, vs. Florida State and at NC State.
Following Friday’s game, it will be a quick turnaround for Virginia as it heads to Florida State for the regular-season finale on Sunday (Feb. 26). Tip-off in Tallahassee, Fla., is scheduled for 2 p.m.