Virginia Opens ACC Tournament Wednesday Against Wake Forest

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s basketball team (5-21, 2-16 ACC) begins competition at the 2022 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament on Wednesday, March 2 by taking on Wake Forest (14-15, 4-14 ACC) at 6:30 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

• The game will be televised on the ACC Regional Sports Networks. Click here to find where to watch
• All of the 2021-22 Virginia women’s basketball games are available locally on the radio on NewsRadio 1070 AM and 98.9 FM WINA
• Live stats will also be available for the game

NOTING THE CAVALIERS

• Wake Forest is the 11 seed; Virginia is the 14 seed
• The Cavaliers return to the ACC Tournament after missing it last season. Virginia is looking for its fourth ACC Tournament title
• The Cavaliers come into the tournament having won two of its last three games, averaging 66.0 points per game in those contests. Virginia’s scoring average this season is 55.1 points per game
• The Cavaliers have struggled at the free throw line this season. The team was shooting 55.3 percent from the stripe heading into the Syracuse game. In the last six games, the Cavaliers are 94-of-117 (80.3 percent), including going 18-of-19 against Miami and 10-of-10 against North Carolina
• Virginia has been tied in rebounding or outrebounded its opponent in seven of the last eight games including going +2 against the ACC’s top rebounding team, Pitt
• Both Taylor Valladay and London Clarkson come into the tournament having scored in double figures in each of the last five games
• Valladay led the charge against Pitt with a 30-point game, scoring 25 of those points in the second half. It was the first 30 point game by a Cavalier since Nov. 2019 and the highest single-game total by a UVA player this season
• Valladay is averaging 15.8 points per game in the last five games and 11.5 points per game in ACC contests. She averaged 6.7 points per game in non-conference games
• Valladay ranks seventh in the ACC in assists per game (3.7)
• Clarkson is averaging 11.0 points per game in the last five games
• Clarkson was averaging 3.6 points per game before the streak, raising her season average to 5.0 heading into the tournament
• Mir McLean has scored in double figures in six of the last games
• McLean leads the team in rebounding at 8.2 per game. She does not have enough appearances to qualify for the conference leader board, but if she did, she would rank fifth in rebounding
• Amandine Toi led the team in scoring in her Senior Night game against UNC. Toi had led the team in scoring in 13 games this season. She has 17 double-digit scoring games and a team-best four 20-point games
• Eleah Parker has 37 blocked shots so far this season. She is nine shy of breaking into the program’s top-10 list for blocks in a single season
• Parker has 270 career blocks. She ranks fifth among active players in blocked shots

SCOUTING WAKE FOREST

• The Demon Deacons went 10-1 in the non-conference portion of their schedule and then 4-14 in conference play
• Wake Forest won the regular-season meeting 68-53 in Winston-Salem on February 17
• Jewel Spear was named to the All-ACC First Team and to the ACC Coaches second team
• Spear leads the ACC in scoring, averaging 18.4 points per game. She has scored over 500 points this season with 533. She is fourth in the ACC in three-point shooting percentage at 37.0 percent
• Virginia leads the all-time series 68-8
• Wake Forest has won the last three meetings
• This marks the ninth neutral site contest between the two schools with Virginia holding a 7-1 advantage heading into Wednesday. Wake Forest’s lone win came in the 2011 ACC Tournament with a 74-68 victory over the Cavaliers

ON THE HORIZON

• The winner of the game will face No. 6 seed Georgia Tech (20-9, 11-7 ACC) at 8 p.m. on Thursday in the second round
• The tournament runs through Sunday, March 6