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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s basketball team (0-1) will play at Kentucky (2-0) on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 8:30 p.m. at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
 
Broadcast Information

  • The game will be televised on the SEC Network with Brenda VanLengen and Andraya Carter calling the game.
  • The game will also stream live online on ESPN3/Watch ESPN
  • All of the 2018-19 Virginia women’s basketball games – home and away – are available locally on the radio on NewsRadio 1070 AM and 98.9 FM WINA
  • Live stats will be available through a link provided on VirginiaSports.com

 
Last Time Out

  • For the second-straight year, Virginia opened the season by taking on national runner-up Mississippi State. The Bulldogs downed the Cavaliers 72-44
  • Mississippi State led 45-19 at the half, but the two teams were 27-27 in the second half
  • Junior guard Dominique Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.) led all scorers with 19 points, matching her career high. She scored 17 points against the Bulldogs in the previous year’s meeting
  • Junior center Felicia Aiyeotan (Lagos, Nigeria) grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds, including 12 defensive rebounds. She also blocked four shots
  • UVA outrebounded Mississippi State 44-41
  • Freshman guard Erica Martinsen (Clarence, N.Y.) made her collegiate debut, checking in with five minutes remaining in the third quarter, and scored her first career points, knocking down a three with 3:27 remaining in that period

 
Scouting the Wildcats

  • The Wildcats are 2-0 this season with an 87-35 victory over Alabama State and a 91-41 win over Southern
  • Senior guard Maci Morris has been tabbed one of 50 players to the 2019 Citizen Naismith Trophy Watch List for national player of the year. She was also named Preseason All-SEC First Team and was tabbed to the 2019 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List, which seeks to honor the nation’s top shooting guard. Last season, she averaged 17.3 points per game and was second in the nation in three-point shooting percentage at 47.5 percent
  • Kentucky returns 10 players from last year’s squad, returning 81 percent of its scoring from last season and 74 percent of its rebounding
  • The Wildcats were 15-17 last season with their year coming to an end with an 81-58 loss to Mississippi State in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament

 
Against Kentucky

  • This is the first-ever meeting between the two schools

 
About Virginia

  • The Cavaliers are coming off a 2017-18 season where they made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010. In the NCAA Tournament, the 10-seed Cavaliers upset 7-seed Cal in the first round (68-62) before falling to 2-seed South Carolina in the second round (66-56)
  • The Cavaliers only have one senior, Mone Jones (Durham, N.C.). Junior Shakyna Payne (Acworth, Ga.) came in with Jones, but redshirted her freshman season (due to injury) and still has two years of availability remaining
  • The Cavaliers return a talented group of juniors: Dominique Toussaint, Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.), Felicia Aiyeotan and Lisa Jablonowski (Ernster, Luxembourg)
  • Toussaint led the team in scoring last year, averaging 11.4 points per game. She was an honorable mention for All-ACC last year
  • Willoughby was third on the team in scoring (9.6 ppg) and second in rebounding (5.4 rpg). She was second in scoring (9.8 ppg) and led the team in rebounding (6.2 rpg) as a freshman. She is on the preseason watch list for the 2019 Cheryl Miller Award, honoring the top small forward in the country. She is a two-time All-ACC Academic Team honoree
  • Aiyeotan was a member of the 2017-18 ACC All-Defensive Team. She finished the season as the ACC leader in blocked shots (2.09 per game) and ranked 11th in rebounding (6.9 per game). Her 69 blocked shots are the fourth-highest single-season total in program history. She has 123 blocked shots in her career, tied for fourth most in the UVA record book
  • The Cavaliers will be looking to replace J’Kyra Brown, Aliyah Huland El and Lauren Moses. Huland El and Moses were both 1,000 point scorers in their four-year Cavalier careers
  • Last season, Virginia played the third-toughest schedule in the country. Only Notre Dame and Oklahoma had higher strength of schedules
  • This is head coach Tina Thompson’s first season at Virginia and her first season as a head coach. She was the associate head coach at Texas last year

 
 
On the Horizon

  • The Cavaliers will play at Old Dominion on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. in Norfolk, Va., before next returning home for the Field Trip Day on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 11 a.m., when UVA hosts North Carolina A&T
  • New this year for all regular-season home games, available reserved single-game tickets can be purchased for $8 in advance, online and via mobile devices, or for $10 at the John Paul Jones ticket office on game day. General admission single-game tickets are $5 in advance, online and via mobile devices or $8 at the John Paul Jones ticket office on game day. Courtside seats are $15