Virginia plays Sunday at Rutgers in WNIT Second Round

The Virginia women’s basketball team (17-15, 6-10 ACC) takes on Rutgers (19-14, 8-10 Big Ten) in the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Sunday, March 20 at 2 p.m. in Piscattaway, N.J.

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 game will also be available online as part of the BTN Plus video subscription package.

The winner of this game will advance to play the winner of Saturday’s Hofstra and Villanova with date and location of that Round-of-16 contest to be determined later.

Both Rutgers and Virginia are coming off two-point wins in the first round in games that were decided in the final two seconds. Rutgers Kahleah Copper scored the game-winning basket in the final two seconds against Georgetown. Cooper ended the game with 21 points and nine rebounds.

For the Cavaliers, senior Faith Randolph (Derwood, Md.) grabbed a steal with 28 seconds remaining in a tie game at VCU. Randolph drove towards the hoop and was fouled with 1.8 seconds remaining, making both free throws to give the Cavaliers a 52-50 victory. Randolph finished with 21 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. It was her second 20-point game of the season and moved her into 20th place on the Cavalier career point list with 1,310.

The Rutgers/Georgetown game had 12 ties and seven lead changes while the Cavaliers and Rams had four ties and 10 lead changes.

Rutgers, the 2014 WNIT Champions, are now 7-0 in WNIT games. Virginia is 11-5 with their top finish being four trips to the quarterfinals (2006, 2007, 2011, 2012). Virginia head coach Joanne Boyle won the WNIT championship in 2010 as the head coach at Cal.

Sunday will mark the second meeting between the Scarlet Knights and Cavaliers this season. RU defeated Virginia, 60-48, during its run to the 2015 Paradise Jam title in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Sophomore Lauren Moses (Randolph, N.J.), who was named to the Paradise Jam All-Tournament Team, scored 18 points with seven rebounds to lead UVA in the game.

RU is led by Second Team All-Big Ten honorees Kahleah Copper and Tyler Scaife. Scaife, who used a coast-to-coast layup to help the Scarlet Knights to the 2014 WNIT title in a 56-54 victory over UTEP, leads Rutgers at 17.6 points per game. Copper, the 2014 WNIT MVP, is adding in 17.5 points per game along with a team-leading 8.0 rebounds per game. Rutgers also features Honorable Mention All-Big Ten and Big Ten All-Defensive Team honoree Rachel Hollivay. Hollivay is averaging 7.3 points per game and is the Scarlet Knights’ all-time leading shot blocker.