The UVA women’s basketball team (11-3, 0-1 ACC) takes on No. 8/9 Louisville (13-3, 1-1 ACC) on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va.
All of the 2016-17 Virginia women’s basketball games – home and away – are available locally on NewsRadio 1070 AM and 98.9 FM WINA with Channing Poole providing the play-by-play. The game will also stream live online as an ACC Network Extra contest with Dave Koehn and Chelsea Shine-Wilson calling the game.
Virginia is coming off a 54-49 loss at Syracuse on Sunday that snapped a six-game win streak. The Cavaliers held Syracuse to 54 points, its lowest offensive output of the season. The Orange are averaging 81.8 points per game. It was the 12th time this season that the UVA defense held an opponent to under 60 points. Virginia continues to lead the ACC and moved up to fifth in the NCAA in scoring defense, holding opponents to 50.4 points per game. UVA is second in the conference with opponents shooting 33.2 percent (which ranks 11th in the nation) and 26.2 percent from three (ranked 24th).
Freshman center Felicia Aiyeotan (Lagos, Nigeria) scored 10 points in 11 minutes at Syracuse. In the last two games, Aiyeotan is averaging 8.0 points in 11.0 minutes per game and is a combined 8-of-10 shooting. Aiyeotan is second in the ACC in field goal shooting percentage, making 63.2 percent of her shots.
Freshman guard Jocelyn Willoughby (East Orange, N.J.) has led the team in rebounding in four of the last six games including grabbing a season-high 11 boards at Syracuse. Willoughby leads the Cavaliers with a 6.4 rebounds-per-game average and is second in scoring at 10.0 points per game.
Louisville is ranked No. 8 in this week’s Associated Press poll and No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. This is the first of two meetings between the teams this season. They will play again on February 23 in Louisville. The Cardinals lead the all-time series, 3-2 and are 3-1 in ACC games.
Last year, Louisville won 59-41 at JPJ and 74-59 at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cavaliers upset the No. 8 Cardinals, 75-59, at JPJ in the final game of the 2014-15 season behind 23 points from Faith Randolph and 22 points and 17 rebounds from Sarah Imovbioh. The Cavaliers outscored the Cardinals 28-10 over the final 8 minutes in that game.
The Cardinals are coming off a 58-55 loss at No. 13 Duke on Monday. Mariya Moore had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Cardinals who had won seven in a row. Myisha Hines-Allen added 16 points and Asia Durr finished with 15 in a tight game with six ties and 16 lead changes. Durr is fifth in the ACC, averaging 18.3 points per game and second in three-point field goals per game at 3.56. Myisha Hines-Allen leads the ACC with 141 rebounds this season and is fifth with 8.8 rebounds per game.
This weekend, the Cavaliers travel to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on North Carolina (11-3, 0-1 ACC) on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 2 p.m. Virginia will be back at home on Sunday, Jan. 15, hosting Boston College (8-6, 1-0 ACC) at 2 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena.
Single-game ticket prices for all home games are $10 for Reserved seating, $8 for adult General Admission and $6 for youth (18 & under), senior (60 & over) and UVA faculty/staff General Admission. Fans may purchase home game tickets through the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone and in person. The Virginia Athletics Ticket Office is located in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium and open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Telephone purchases can be made by calling 1-800-542-UVA1 (8821) or locally at 434-924-UVA1 (8821).
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Chris Graham
