Women’s basketball: UVA plays at No. 14 Louisville on Thursday

The UVA women’s basketball team (18-9, 7-7 ACC) plays at No. 14 Louisville (23-6, 10-4 ACC) on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.

All of the 2016-17 Virginia women’s basketball games – home and away – are available locally on the radio 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 game.

The Cavaliers are receiving votes in this week’s USA Today Coaches poll. Louisville is ranked No. 14 in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls. Both Louisville and Virginia bring three-game win streaks into the game, the third-longest current win streaks among ACC teams.

Virginia leads the ACC and is second in the country in three-point shooting defense with opponents making just 25.0 percent of their attempts from long range. St. John’s leads the nation by limiting opponents to 24.2 percent three-point shooting. Virginia is second in the ACC and 15th in the nation in scoring defense, limiting opponents to 54.9 points per game. UVA is second in the ACC and 22nd in the nation in field goal shooting defense with opponents making 35.6 percent of their attempts.

In Sunday’s 63-55 victory at Virginia Tech on Sunday, senior Breyana Mason (Woodbridge, Va.) led the team in scoring with 13 points. It was her first time pacing UVA in a game since putting up 19 points against BC on Jan. 15. Mason scored her 1,000th career point on a jumper right before halftime, becoming the 32nd player in program history to reach that milestone.

Junior guard J’Kyra Brown (Rocky Mount, N.C.) scored 11 points, her fourth-consecutive double-digit scoring effort and the sixth time in the last seven games she has finished the game in double figures. Brown has only started two games this season, but is averaging 8.5 points in 24.4 minutes per game.

Virginia is alone in eighth place in the ACC standings heading into the last week of the regular season. The Cavaliers are guaranteed to finish no lower than ninth in the conference, giving them a first-round bye in next week’s ACC Tournament. The bracket for the tournament, which runs from March 1-5 at the HTC Center in Conway, S.C., will be released on Sunday evening (Feb. 26). Louisville is currently tied with NC State in fourth place in the ACC.

The Cardinals lead the all-time series against the Cavaliers, 4-2, and are 4-1 in ACC games.

Virginia fell 86-81 in overtime against Louisville in the first meeting of the season (Jan. 5). The Cavaliers led by 15 points with 3:51 remaining in the third quarter, but needed a buzzer-beating three from freshman guard Dominique Toussaint (Staten Island, N.Y.) to force OT against the Cardinals. The Cavaliers’ 81 points against Louisville was only the third time since the start of the 2014-15 season that a Cardinals’ opponent has scored more than 80 points in a game against Louisville.

Louisville leads the ACC in rebounding, averaging 42.6 per game and is third with a +7.8 rebounding margin. The Cardinals are second in the ACC with a 1.2 assist-to-turnover ratio. Asia Durr ranks third in the ACC in scoring, averaging 18.3 points per game. Myisha Hines-Allen is third in the ACC in rebounding, averaging 9.0 per game.

The Cavaliers will close out the regular season by hosting No. 18 NC State on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena. The game is the Cavaliers’ #Play4Kay game with all fans encouraged to wear pink in order to promote breast cancer awareness. It will also be Senior Day with Mason, the lone senior on the team, being honored in a brief on-court pregame ceremony.

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).