Virginia Plays at Wake Forest on Sunday

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Date and Time Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, 2:00 p.m. Location Winston-Salem, N.C. | Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum
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Jan. 25, 2013

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s basketball team (13-6, 5-3 ACC) takes on Wake Forest (10-9, 3-4 ACC) on Sunday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. in Winston-Salem, N.C.

This will be the first of two regular-season meetings between the two teams this year. The squads will play in Charlottesville on Monday, Feb. 25.

The Cavaliers have dominated the all-time series with a 62-4 record against the Demon Deacons. However, two of Wake Forest’s victories have come in the last four meetings, including a 74-68 victory in the first round of the 2011 ACC Tournament. Last season, Virginia defeated Wake 61-55 in Charlottesville.

Wake is coming off a 79-78 home loss to Miami where the Hurricanes scored a lay-in with five seconds remaining to come away with the victory. There were four lead changes in a wild final 42 seconds of the contest. Chelsea Douglas led all scorers with 19 points, and was joined in double figures by Lakevia Boykin (16) and Mykala Walker, who scored all 15 of her points in the second half. Sandra Garcia led all players with eight rebounds.

The Cavaliers are coming off a 69-57 victory over Boston College. Virginia held a 33-27 lead at halftime. Coming out of the break, Boston College did not score a field goal for the first 12:51 of the second period, starting the half 0-for-16 from the field, allowing Virginia to cement a double-digit lead.

Ataira Franklin (Jr., Bowie, Md.) led the team in scoring for the second consecutive game with 18 points. Franklin hit four three-pointers in the game. In her last two games, she is 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) from long range, scoring 35 total points with 10 rebounds, five steals and four assists while playing all 80 minutes.

Franklin scored the 1,000th point of her career in the Boston College game. She went into the game 15 points shy of becoming the 29th player in program history to join the 1,000 point club and reached the milestone when she hit a three-pointer with 6:56 remaining in the game.

The Virginia bench contributed 20 points in the BC game, the highest total since the Alabama game. Sarah Imovbioh (Fr., Abuja, Nigeria) played 15 minutes against BC. After scoring three points with one rebound in five first-half minutes, Imovbioh had a dominant second-half performance, going 4-for-4 from the field to score 10 points with eight rebounds in 10 minutes of playing time. She also logged a career-high four assists in the game.

Against Boston College, the Cavaliers had four players finish the game in double figures. It was the sixth time this season, and the second straight game, where the Cavaliers had four players score in double digits. Kelsey Wolfe (Jr., Germantown, Md.), who had 10 points against Boston College, has scored in double-digits in six consecutive games, averaging 16.8 points per game in that span.

The Cavaliers hit seven three-pointers against Boston College with Franklin going 4-of-8 from long range. Virginia has made at least five three-pointers in each of the last five games, the first time UVa has had five-straight games against ACC opponents in which it has made five or more three-pointers since it closed out the 2002-03 season with six straight.

Virginia is 4-1 in its last five games. Wolfe is averaging 15.2 points per game in that span. Telia McCall (Jr., Marietta, Ga.), who is currently tied for fifth in the ACC in rebounding, has averaged 12.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in the last five contests. Franklin has hit 11 three-pointers and gotten 16 assists, 10 steals and five blocks in the last five games.

Wake Forest’s first-year head coach Jen Hoover is a familiar face to Virginia fans and Cavalier head coach Joanne Boyle. Last season, Hoover had her first head coaching job, leading the High Point Panthers to a 20-13 record and earning the 2012 Spalding Maggie Dixon Division I Rookie Coach of the Year award. Hoover spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Cal, working on Joanne Boyle’s staff from 2009-11, including the year Cal went to the Sweet-16. Hoover spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Virginia (2004-07) under Debbie Ryan. Hoover is a Wake Forest alumna where she starred for the Demon Deacons from 1987-91. She was a three-time All-ACC selection and still holds the school’s career records for points (1,728) and rebounds (1,006). She was named one of the ACC’s top-50 all-time players and is still the only Demon Deacon to surpass 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.

Virginia will have a week off after the Wake game, returning to action on Sunday, Feb. 3 when it hosts Georgia Tech at 1 p.m. in a game that will be broadcast on the ACC Regional Sports Network. The Feb. 3 game will be National Girls and Women in Sports Day with Virginia senior swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Lauren Perdue signing autographs pregame before being honored in a halftime ceremony. Feb. 3 is also Kids Day with a pregame youth zone featuring sign-making, face-painting, and youth-oriented activities. After the game, the women’s basketball team will sign autographs on the main court.