UVa guard Moorer filling various roles for Cavaliers

The roller-coaster ride continues for Ariana Moorer.
In an unusual role off Virginia’s bench now, the rookie point guard enters every game unsure of when and where she will be employed.
That mystery marches on today at N.C. State (10-14, 2-7 ACC) at
3:30 p.m. with a sold-out crowd filling Reynolds Coliseum as a tribute to late coach Kay Yow. It marks the first time that N.C. State’s “Hoops 4 Hope” campaign, which raises money for the cancer research fund in Yow’s name, has completely filled the venue.
For Moorer, the game could entail time at point guard. It could land the Woodbridge native time at shooting guard. It could also leave her sitting on the bench as Monica Wright and Britnee Millner dominate the playing time on the perimeter.
Moorer stated her case for additional playing time against Maryland on Thursday as 17th-ranked Virginia struggled on the road en route to a 16-point loss that dropped the Cavaliers to 19-6 overall and 5-4 in the ACC.
The freshman nailed a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.
“She did well. She did a good job,” Virginia junior guard Monica Wright said. “When she got in she gave us a lot and she came in with a lot of energy. I feel like on offense she did exactly what the coaches wanted her to do, which was get the ball to the basket.
“Defensively, we could not have asked for more.”
In all, Moorer played 21 minutes, the most that she had played in almost a month, but she missed 10 of her 15 shots from the field and had a pair of turnovers.
While things improved for her individually, Moorer remained focused merely on the setback.
“It is a team loss. It does not matter if you score 60 points,” she said. “It is about the team and we got the loss.”
Virginia could use a win today as the regular season winds down — the Cavaliers have just five games left and are in a three-team tie for fifth place with Georgia Tech and Boston College.
“It is crazy on the road,” Moorer said. “We are our only fans so we have to keep each other hype throughout the whole game and it is tough, but we have to get through it though.”