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2016 ACC Tournament
Second Round: 9-Seed Virginia Cavaliers (16-14, 6-10 ACC) vs. 8-Seed Duke Blue Devils (19-11, 8-8 ACC)
Date and Time Thursday, March 3, 2016, 2 p.m.
Location Greensboro, N.C. | Greensboro Coliseum
Media TV: ACC Regional Sports Network | ESPN3/WatchESPN Streaming
ACC Tournament Central Page | Full Bracket | Live Stats | Listen Live | Live Video: Postgame Press Conferences
Additional Information Game Notes (.pdf) | 2015-16 Season Stats | 2015-16 Fact Book (.pdf)
Social Media @UVAWBBHoops Twitter | Facebook | VirginiaWBB Instagram

March 2, 2016

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s basketball team (16-14, 6-10 ACC) opens the 2016 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament by taking on eight-seed Duke, on Thursday, March 3 at 2 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum.

The game will be televised live on the ACC Regional Sports Networks with Mike Hogewood and LaChina Robinson calling the action. The game will also be streaming online on ESPN3/Watch ESPN. Additionally, all of the 2015-16 Virginia women’s basketball games – home and away – are available locally on NewsRadio 1070 AM and 98.9 FM WINA and streaming online at wina.com and VirginiaSports.com with John Freeman calling the action.

The Cavaliers finished the regular-season tied for ninth place in the ACC, earning the No. 9 seed in the tournament by virtue of a tiebreaker with Wake Forest. Duke finished in a tie for seventh place, but lost the tiebreaker with Georgia Tech to become the eight-seed.

This is the second-straight year UVA has been the No. 9 seed. Last year, the Cavaliers fell 62-52 to eight-seed Miami in the second round.

Virginia has won three ACC Tournament titles, the last coming in 1993. Each of the last two years, the Cavaliers have been eliminated in the second round.

The winner of Thursday’s game will face top-seeded Notre Dame on Friday, March 4 at 2 p.m.

Virginia is coming off a 60-55 loss at Virginia Tech on Sunday. The Cavaliers led by 10 points, 46-36, with 9:43 remaining, but Virginia Tech closed out the game on a 24-9 run. The Hokies shot 61.5 percent in the final period and went 7-of-8 from the free throw line, while UVA shot 27.8 percent from the field in the final quarter.

Sophomore Mikayla Venson (Arlington, Va.) scored 16 points, including going 4-of-8 from three-point range. Venson, who broke the Virginia single-season three-point record against North Carolina, ranks 10th in the Cavalier career three-point list with 129, two makes shy of tying Dawn Staley in ninth place.

Venson was 4-of-8 from three-point range. The rest of the team combined to go 2-of-13 (15.3 percent). The Cavaliers have been solid from three-point range. Virginia had spent most of the conference season ranked in the top-three in three-point shooting percentage, making 36.4 percent of its shots through the first 14 ACC games. In the last two games, however, UVA is 11-of-42 (26.2 percent) from long range.

Virginia committed nine turnovers against the Hokies, the second-straight game with single-digit turnovers and its fifth overall this season. The Cavaliers are third in the ACC in turnover margin at +3.4. UVA has six games this year in which it was +10 or higher in turnover margin including committing just eight turnovers against UNC while the Tar Heels turned the ball over 10 times.

Sophomore Lauren Moses (Mount Holly, N.J.) grabbed 12 rebounds against Virginia Tech, her eighth double-digit rebounding game of the year. Moses leads the Cavaliers, averaging 7.1 rebounds per game.

Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle was a four-year-letterwinner at Duke, graduating in 1985 with a degree in economics as well as serving as an assistant coach at Duke from 1993 to 2002. Boyle is 0-5 coaching against her alma mater.

Virginia has lost the last 23 meetings against Duke and 28 of the last 29, including falling 67-52 earlier this season in Durham. UVA’s last win in the series was a 61-49 victory in Charlottesville Jan. 30, 2000. Virginia and Duke’s last meeting in the tournament was a 76-53 victory by the Blue Devils in the 2009 quarterfinals. UVA is 1-4 against Duke in the tournament with its lone win coming in the 1992 quarterfinals

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