Virginia Opens ACC Tournament on Thursday

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March 1, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 8-seed Virginia women’s basketball team (18-11, 7-9 ACC) takes on No. 9-seed Wake Forest (15-14, 6-10 ACC) on Thursday, March 2 at 2 p.m. in the second round of the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament, being held at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C.

All of the 2016-17 Virginia women’s basketball games – home and away – are available locally on the radio on NewsRadio 1070 AM and 98.9 FM WINA with Luke Neer providing the play-by-play. The game will also stream be televised on the ACC Regional Sports Networks.

Virginia is the No. 8 seed in the tournament, its highest seeding since earning the No. 6 seed in 2013. Both Virginia and Wake had first round byes and will play on the second day of the tournament.The winner of this game advances to play top-seeded Notre Dame on Friday at 2 p.m. The Irish earned a double-bye into Friday’s quarterfinals.

Virginia is coming off back-to-back losses at No. 14 Louisville and to No. 18 NC State to close out the regular season. Wake Forest also closed out its season with back-to-back losses at No. 20 Syracuse and against No. 14 Louisville. The Demon Deacons have lost five of their last six games. Virginia has won three of its last five including a 60-51 victory over No. 4 Florida State.

Virginia leads the ACC and is second in the country in three-point shooting defense with opponents making just 25.8 percent of their attempts from long range. St. John’s leads the nation by limiting opponents to 24.2 percent three-point shooting. Virginia is second in the ACC and 18th in the nation in scoring defense, limiting opponents to 55.4 points per game. UVA is second in the ACC and 25th in the nation in field goal shooting defense with opponents making 36.0 percent of their attempts.

Both Dominique Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.) were named to the ACC All-Freshman team. It was the first time Virginia has ever had two players earn All-Freshman honors in the same season and only the eighth time that any team has had two freshmen on the team. Neither player was named to the ACC Preseason Newcomer Watch List.

This game features some of the top newcomers in the conference. Wake’s Alex Sharp, who was also named to the ACC All-Freshman team, is the top rebounding freshman at 7.6 per game, followed by Willoughby at 6.3 per game. Toussaint (9.7) and Willoughby (9.2) are second and third in the ACC in scoring with ACC Freshman of the Year Francesca Pan of Georgia Tech leading the rookies at 11.0 per game. Willoughby leads the ACC freshmen in steals at 1.69 per game while Toussaint is fourth at 1.32. Wake’s Ona Udoh is second among freshmen in field goal shooting percentage at 55.6 percent while Felicia Aiyeton (Lagos, Nigeria) is fifth at 53.3 percent.

Senior guard Breyana Mason (Woodbridge, Va.), who scored her 1,000th career point at Virginia Tech two weeks ago, is second in the ACC in three-point shooting percentage, making 44.6 percent of her attempts. In the last three games, Mason is 7-of-9 from three-point range. Mason took over the team lead in scoring last week. She is the only Cavalier currently averaging double-digit points at 10.1 per game. Mason averaged 9.0 points per game through the end of the non-conference schedule, ranking fourth on the team in scoring. She averaged a team-best 11.0 points per game against ACC opponents.

Virginia is 67-5 all-time against the Demon Deacons and has won six of the last seven meetings. The Cavaliers edged the Demon Deacons 60-57 in overtime in their regular-season meeting this year. Virginia outscored Wake 26-13 in the first half, but the Demon Deacons came out strong after the break, outscoring UVA 18-7 in the third quarter and tying up the game, 41-41, with 4:05 remaining in the fourth. The game was tied at 46 with 53 seconds remaining. Both teams had a chance to win in regulation, but both teams missed a pair of field goal attempts down the stretch that sent the game into overtime. Toussaint scored 12 of Virginia’s 16 points in overtime, including hitting a pair of threes and making two free throws with 12 seconds remaining that sealed the victory for the Cavaliers.

Wake Forest is second in the ACC in rebounding, averaging 41.5 per game. Virginia finished +1 on the boards in the first meeting (43-42).

Wake Forest head coach Jen Hoover was a member of Joanne Boyle’s staff for three years at Cal (2008-11), including the 2009 season when they led the Bears to the program’s first-ever Sweet 16. Hoover spent one season working on Debbie Ryan’s staff at Virginia, serving as the Director of Operations in 2003-04.

Virginia has won the ACC Tournament three times, its last title coming in 1993. UVA’s last appearance in the title game was in 1994 and its last trip to the semifinals came in 2008.