Cavaliers romp past Rider in Classic

Lyndra Littles received a belated Christmas present Sunday.
Virginia’s star forward scored an autograph from legendary basketball standout Teresa Witherspoon, her childhood idol, inside John Paul Jones Arena.
Hours later, Littles and No. 16 Virginia delivered a present for the 3,000 fans in attendance at the Cavalier Classic with a sizzling, opening-day 83-38 victory over Rider in the four-team event.
The easy win improves Virginia to 10-2 and sets up a championship game tonight at 7 with Louisiana Tech, where Witherspoon serves as the associate head coach. The Lady Techsters opened the event with an 83-62 win over Maryland-Baltimore County.
Advancing to the title game never appeared in question for the Cavaliers.
In fact, Virginia took a double-digit lead with 10:09 left in the opening half on a layup by Enonge Stovall and never looked back, closing out the first half on a 23-4 run to take a commanding 48-19 lead.
“We had a good start tonight and we were fairly well prepared mentally and physically,” Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. “We had a little more pop in our step, and I was able to play a lot of people.”
The Cavaliers, who got 16 points from Littles in the opening half, forced Rider to self-destruct with 21 turnovers before halftime arrived. Those miscues led to 23 points for UVa.
“Rider handled our pressure fairly well in the first half but we wore them down a little bit, which made life a little bit easier because we were able to steal the ball so much and score easily,” Ryan said. “If we had to play a half-court game it would have been different.
“We were able to steal the ball a lot, which gave us some separation really early in the game.”
Virginia was just as relentless in the opening stages of the second half, pushing its advantage to 47, at 74-27, just eight minutes into the session.
“I didn’t want them to think that the game was over [at halftime],” Ryan said. “It is very possible for that to happen if you get caught up in that. It is a phenomenon that happens in athletics when you think the game is over and the other team just plays the game and the ‘just-plays team’ comes back and beats you.
“It happens all the time so you have to focused and play your game.”
With the large cushion, Ryan spread out the playing time to allow all 10 players that saw action to log at least 15 minutes.
The win delivered a message to the coaching staff. In their previous game on Dec. 21, the Cavaliers’ provided a lackluster effort in a narrow win over Mount St. Mary’s that landed three starters on the bench in the second half.
“We did what we were supposed to from the jump … and I think that shows the character and the maturity of this team to be able to recognize that we didn’t take care of what we needed to take care in the first half [against Mount St. Mary’s],” Littles said. “We came out sluggish in that game, and then to have a couple of days off for Christmas break and to come back and focus and do everything that our coaches wanted to do, I think, was great.”
Monica Wright, despite playing just 23 minutes, scored a game-high 22 points and registered six of Virginia’s 18 steals. Whitny Edwards and Chelsea Shine added 12 and 11 points respectively for the Cavaliers, who hit 25 of their 37 free throw attempts and won the rebounding battle 52-30.
Prior to their victory, Virginia was able to watch Louisiana Tech from the stands to get an in-person scouting report for tonight’s title game.
The Cavaliers watched as the Lady Techsters (7-4) exploded in the second half, outscoring UMBC 44-26 to register the 21-point victory.
“You engage more when you are actually there,” Littles said of the viewing. “You can say, ‘hey, she’s a shooter’ or ‘she only uses her right hand’ as opposed to sitting in a dark room staring at film.
“It is always better to be able to be there and see them.”
Layups ...
Virginia forward Britny Edwards dressed but did not play in the game. Ryan said the rookie was battling a stomach virus. ... The rehab process for center Aisha Mohammed is progressing, Ryan confirmed, and the training staff has set the target date for her return — Jan. 2 against Georgia. ... Virginia’s five bench players outscored Rider 39-38.