Cavs’ ‘D’ comes up short

It is a staple of Debbie Ryan-coached basketball teams.

While scoring generates more buzz, players suiting up for Virginia will play defense or watch from the sidelines.

Given that the offense provided more than enough scoring Friday night, the often porous defense and ill-timed fouling left a bad taste in Ryan’s mouth after the 16th-ranked Cavaliers failed to hold serve at home against No. 22 Florida State, losing 80-75.

Virginia’s players certainly learned that was unacceptable during a near 30-minute meeting following the setback.

“Any time we let any team — whether it is Florida State or UNC — score over 80 points, we obviously didn’t do our job on the defensive end,” Virginia forward Lyndra Littles said. “Being that the ACC is so competitive we have to get better on the defensive end.

“I don’t think teams should be scoring over 60-65 if everybody is doing their job defensively. That way you can keep a handle on things.”

The Cavaliers (15-4, 2-2 ACC) also helped the Seminoles account for 25 percent of their offense on free throws. Twenty fouls called on Virginia, many of which came late in possessions, led to a total of 27 free throws for Florida State (17-4, 5-0 ACC).

FSU also nailed 10 3-pointers, many of which came on clean looks, which caused Ryan to alter her defensive strategies in search of an answer.

“We went to zone and that stopped them for a while and we went back to man when they started to break it and we were switching a lot,” Ryan said. “We were doing a fairly good job defensively, but we were just fouling at the end of the shot clock.”

Despite the poor play, Virginia remained in position to take the lead in the waning minutes, but after trimming it to a point on numerous occasions, missed shots or turnovers foiled the comeback.

Littles, who scored 21 points, had an open jumper on a fast break with 20 seconds left, but her shot clanked off the rim.

“It is a shot that I know I can hit and I have hit on numerous occasions,” Littles said. “I really didn’t think about it. We can hit the mid-range jumper so it wasn’t really a thought. It was probably a poor decision on my part because I believe the point guard was actually sitting in the hole, so I probably should have realized that and took it in a little closer and tried to get a layup as opposed to taking the mid-range jumper.

“When things are going that quick … I trusted it. It just didn’t go in.”

Now tied for sixth place in the ACC, Virginia’s players know they will be forced to steal a road win in the future to make up for the missed opportunity.

That was compounded by a season-best crowd that included a large collection of students, a rarity this season.

“To let [the fans] down like that, you feel really bad,” Virginia guard Monica Wright said. “We shouldn’t have losses like that at home.”

“It happens and we are just going to have to get better.”

The Cavaliers travel to Clemson on Monday at 7 p.m. The contest will be televised regionally.