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Virginia Hosts Bucknell on Tuesday to Open 2019-20 Season

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s basketball team will take on Bucknell on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m., at John Paul Jones Arena in the opening game of the 2019-20 season.
 
BROADCAST INFORMATION

  • The game will stream as an ACCNX contest, available on the ESPN app and WatchESPN. ACCNX streams are available through participating TV providers that carry ACCN
  • 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 also be available for the game
  • Links for both are posted on VirginiaSports.com

 
NOTING THE CAVALIERS

  • The Cavaliers return three senior starters from last season’s team, including two 1,000-point scorers: Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.) and Dominique Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.). Willoughby and Toussaint, who have started nearly every game in the last two seasons, were members of the ACC All-Freshman team their first year, with Toussaint being named an All-ACC honorable mention her sophomore season. The duo helped lead the team to the NCAA Tournament in 2018 (their sophomore season)
  • Willoughby led the team in both scoring (14.8 ppg) and rebounding (8.3 rpg) last year, the first Cavalier to do so since Monica Wright in 2010 and finished the year ranked seventh in the ACC in rebounding
  • Willoughby was selected to the preseason All-ACC team by both the Blue Ribbon Panel and by the league’s coaches. She is the first Virginia player to be voted to a preseason All-Conference team since Faith Randolph in 2015
  • Willoughby was named to the preseason watch list for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, honoring the top shooting guard in the nation. Last season, Willoughby, who plays a variety of positions on the court, was named to the preseason watch list for the Cheryl Miller Award, which honors the top small forward in the country
  • Toussaint was second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.1 points per game and led the squad with 104 assists. She had 19 double-digit scoring games, including scoring 19 points against Mississippi State
  • Forward Lisa Jablonowski (Ernster, Luxembourg) rounds out the returners. She appeared in all 31 games last year, starting the final 26. She was second on the team in rebounding, averaging 6.3 per game and contributed 7.2 points per game
  • The Cavaliers, who played the fourth-toughest schedule in the nation last year, again face a very challenging slate of opponents. UVA (if they face Mississippi State in the second game of the Duel in the Desert Tournament) has games against the No. 2 (UConn), No. 3 (Notre Dame), No. 4 (Mississippi State) and No. 5 (Louisville) teams in the final AP poll of last season. They also have two more games against top-25 teams in the preseason, No. 17 Kentucky and No. 20 UCLA, both at home. The non-conference slate also includes three more teams with RPIs in the top-50
  • Virginia finished last season with a 12-19 record and a 5-11 mark in conference play

 
NEW FACES

  • This year’s team features Tina Thompson’s first recruiting class, many of whom will see significant playing time during the season. It will also be the first opportunity for Purdue transfer Dani Lawson to see playing time. Lawson was Thompson’s first signee, arriving last July (2018), but sat out last season. She also missed the second half of her freshman year at Purdue, recovering from an injury. When she takes the court, it will be her first official appearance in a game since Nov. 25, 2017
  • Redshirt freshman guard Amandine Toi will also be making her delayed debut. She missed the 2017-18 season after injuring her knee the week before the season opener. Last year, she injured the other knee right before the season began and had to sit out that season. The lightning-fast guard was a member of the French U16, U18 and U19 junior national teams. She is a redshirt freshman on the court, but is a third-year student at the University
  • All of the freshmen are expected to see significant playing time this season. Guard Dylan Horton (Los Angeles, Calif.) led Redondo Union to a 2018 Division 2 state championship and three-consecutive Bay League championships. Virginian Carole Miller (Alexandria, Va.), another guard, helped lead Edison High to back-to-back Class 5 Virginia state championship games, averaging 20 points and nine rebounds her senior season. Guard Kylie Kornegay-Lucas (Camden, Del.) played at New Hope Academy her senior season where she was a member of the team that won the 2019 Geico High School National Championship. Forward Meg Jefferson is a 6-3 forward from Sydney, Australia where she played for the New South Wales U18 and U20 teams
  • Tuesday’s game will mark the return to the bench at JPJ of assistant coach Monica Wright. Wright graduated as the Cavaliers’ all-time leading scorer with 2,540 points, which ranks third in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The three-time All-American was honored as the 2010 ACC Player of the Year, ACC Defensive Player of the Year and WBCA National Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 23.7 points per game (ranked seventh nationally) and 3.7 steals per game (second in the NCAA). She spent last year working as an assistant coach at Liberty

 
HEAD COACH TINA THOMPSON

  • Virginia will be led by second-year head coach Tina Thompson. Thompson is in her fifth year of coaching overall, spending three seasons at Texas (two as an assistant and the 2017-18 year as the associate head coach) before taking the job at UVA. Thompson was inducted into both the Naismith Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Thompson was the first-ever pick in the WNBA draft, is a four-time WNBA champion, nine-time WNBA All-Star and was the league’s all-time leading scorer at the time of her retirement in 2013, scoring 7,488 points in 496 games played
  • Tina Thompson will be heading to her alma mater when the Cavaliers take on USC in the second game of the season. Thompson’s jersey will be retired by the school in a pregame ceremony at the Galen Center that day. Still ranked as USC’s No. 5 all-time scorer (2,248 career points) and rebounder, she was a USBWA All-American as a senior in 1997, the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 1994 and a three-time first team all-conference honoree
  • Associate head coach Karleen Thompson is also a Women of Troy alumna and was a teammate of Tina Thompson at USC

 
SCOUTING BUCKNELL

  • Bucknell finished last season with a 28-6 record and a 16-2 mark in the Patriot League
  • The Bison were edged 70-67 by No. 5 seed Florida in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year
  • They have a new head coach, Trevor Woodruff, who comes to the Bison from NCAA Division III Scranton
  • Bucknell is predicted to finish third in the Patriot League this season
  • Senior forward Ellie Mack was named to the preseason All-Patriot League team
  • This will be the first meeting between the teams since 1989. UVA won that game, 81-48. It is the only time they have faced one another

 
ON THE HORIZON

  • The Cavaliers will head to the west coast for a two-game road trip, playing at Southern California on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 5 p.m. (ET) and following that with a contest at CSUN (Cal State Northridge) on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. (ET)
  • Head Coach Tina Thompson’s jersey will be retired by the school in a pregame ceremony at the Galen Center before the start of the game against USC
  • Both games will stream live online and will have live stats available
  • Virginia returns home to host Kentucky on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 5 p.m.

 
TICKET INFORMATION

  • Reserved single-game tickets are $8 if purchased in advance or online and $10 if purchased at the JPJ Box Office. General admission tickets are are $5 if purchased in advance or online and $8 if purchased at the JPJ Box Office. Single-game courtside tickets may be purchased for $15
  • For more information or to purchase tickets, fans should contact the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office at 1-800-542-UVA1 (8821). Fans can also purchase tickets online at VirginiaSports.com or in-person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium

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