Virginia pulls out a close one

What Virginia will do with the vaunted trio in the ACC — Duke, Maryland and North Carolina — will not be discovered for several weeks.
For now, the Cavaliers appear fixed on dishing out lumps to perennial powers from the Southeastern Conference.
With a landmark victory over Tennessee already under its belt, Virginia used a well-timed rally Friday night to upend Georgia, 62-60, in front of a season-best crowd of 3,714 at John Paul Jones.
Those in attendance were unsuccessful starting the wave, but paid for a ticket that included a finish that should have been well worth the price of admission. With Virginia now 12-2 overall, they also witnessed the program’s best start since the 1991-92 season.
After trailing for almost the entire second half, Virginia took the lead for good, at 60-58, on an odd old-fashioned three-point play by Lyndra Littles with 50.6 seconds left.
Littles, who scored 14 of Virginia’s final 16 points, lost her defender on a screen, collected a baseline inbounds pass from Britnee Millner that served as an alley-oop and released the ball before landing. In the process, Littles drew contact — or gave it — with Georgia forward Angel Robinson.
Once the play unfolded, Virginia coach Debbie Ryan went bonkers on the sidelines, springing into the air and slapping hands at a frantic pace.
“I just saw it developing and I was just hoping it would roll in,” Ryan said of her celebration, while noting her leap did not match that of Littles. “We had run that play one time before [this season] so they might not have seen it. We ran it one other time and really the kids knew a little bit about what I was going to do there.
“I was proud of [freshman forward] Chelsea Shine because she had no idea what she was doing, but she got [the screen] done.”
Georgia coach Andy Landers said Robinson was near flawless in her defense of the game-changing play.
“You know what I thought right there? I thought that the call is going to go the way the call went almost every single time, but I thought Robinson was positioned beautifully,” he said. “I thought she was straight up. I think when [Littles] caught it and tipped it, the offensive player created the contact and got the foul. And that happens all the time.
“[Former Tennessee All-American] Candace Parker was the best-ever at it … lean into you, shoot into you, you are standing straight up and they call you for a foul. I think that’s why they got the foul shots tonight. We did all we could do with it.”
Georgia had a chance to answer. In fact, a wide-open chance, but guard Angela Puleo missed a 3-point attempt from the corner with 34 seconds left that rattled off the rim and into the hands of Shine.
“Puleo had time and addressed the basket very, very well,” Landers said. “I thought it was in. She looked good doing it.”
After Millner was fouled with 24.2 seconds left, she promptly missed the front end of a 1-and-1 situation, but forward Enonge Stovall collected an offensive rebound.
“It was a very critical rebound,” Ryan said.
Stovall, who had not scored in the game previously, calmly hit a pair of free throws to put Virginia up 62-58.
“That’s a lot of pressure,” Ryan said.
Georgia added a layup with 2.1 seconds left, but Virginia managed to loft a pass to midcourt after a timeout to seal the win.
“It was exactly like I thought it would be,” Ryan said. “I knew it was going to be one of those ugly, ugly games — that’s kind of the way that Georgia wants you to play.
“They ramped up the intensity the entire game and there were parts where we backed down and parts where we were able to maintain our composure and our poise. That was really the key to the game because we had the most poise at the end of the game.”
Virginia guard Monica Wright, despite shooting woes and late foul trouble, paced the Cavaliers with 24 points.
Littles added 23 points, including the late-game scoring spree and the leaning three-point play that left the crowd in awe.
“I think it is all about timing,” Littles said. “Basically, when the ball goes up you have to make sure that you time it just right because you don’t want to over-jump it and you don’t want to under-jump it. I don’t know, just trust the passer and trust your ability to jump.”
Virginia returns to action on Monday against St. Francis (Penn.) at 7 p.m.
“We are not going to stop here,” Ryan said. “This game is in the box and we are going to move on to the next one and keep moving forward.”
Layups …
When Wright hit the second of two free throws with 16:03 left in the first half, the junior climbed another spot on the program’s all-time scoring chart. With her seventh point of the contest, Wright passed former Cavalier Melissa Mahony, who scored 1,400 points during a 120-game career from 1979 to 1982. Wright now has 1418 points in her career. … Virginia senior center Aisha Mohammed made her return to the court with 13:45 left in the first half. The senior, who rejoined practice Wednesday, played just 15 minutes and grabbed three defensive rebounds. Mohammed did not attempt a shot from the field.