Virginia pulls away for victory

One statistic on the stat sheet eluded Virginia coach Debbie Ryan.

Upset with a lackluster performance inside John Paul Jones Arena, the legendary coach skipped past her team’s current record, which sits at 13-2, and focused solely on execution — or the lack thereof — in a sloppy win over St. Francis (Pa.).

Despite 16 turnovers and a woeful shooting performance from the field against yet another zone-based defense, the 15th-ranked Cavaliers outlasted the Red Flash 82-66 in front of 2,478 fans at the JPJ.

With ACC play on the horizon — Virginia hosts Wake Forest on Sunday — Ryan expected better in the team’s final tune-up.

Luckily, the Cavaliers managed a 16-point victory, something that appeared near impossible after her team fell behind by seven points at 32-25 with 3:02 left in the opening half.

That was the silver lining, as poor as Ryan may have deemed the outing, on a day that saw reserve junior Enonge Stovall pushed off the roster and out of school for academic reasons.

“It has been hard, but it is what it is,” Ryan said. “You have to deal with it. It was really hard for everybody. Professionally, for me, it was difficult. Personally, it was about three times that. I am so close to Enonge. I have sort of turned into a mother figure for her.

“It is very difficult.”

St. Francis, despite a 3-10 record, was difficult in the opening half. The Red Flash hit 14 of their 31 attempts from the field, exposing Virginia’s spotty defense at times.

Virginia closed out the opening half on a 9-2 run and took control of the contest early in the second stanza, but the players received a verbal lashing from Ryan for their failure to focus for 40 minutes.

“Coach Debbie wasn’t really pleased with us in the locker room because we didn’t play defense at the beginning,” Virginia senior center Aisha Mohammed said. “The chemistry was there in terms of offense but the defense was kind of slack. She wasn’t real happy even though we won the game.

“We have to work on our defense more.”

Virginia junior Monica Wright, as usual, stood out on offense. The guard scored 13 of her game-high 22 points in the second half and added six rebounds and four assists.

The scoring outside of Wright and Mohammed (16 points) was balanced as Ryan played all 11 players at least six minutes.

Virginia’s starting lineup also featured a new look as Ryan employed Lyndra Littles, Mohammed and Wright together for the first time all season.

“I am not sure if it is the best lineup, and I don’t blame the lineup, I think the players need to be a little more focused,” Ryan said. “They seemed focused in the locker room but they didn’t seem focused on the court.”

It showed in the early stages as Virginia fell behind.

“I felt the start of the game was a little uninspired,” the coach said. “I don’t think it was uninspired from a work ethic, I just think that we were a little out of sync. I am not sure that this group has played long enough. We have only played like one day, two days in practice. I am not really sure if they are in sync or ready to play.”

The loss of Stovall, known for her tenacious defense, certainly played a factor for a team coping with yet another unfortunate mishap.

“You lose people and it obviously breaks your heart but you find people that step up,” said Virginia forward Jayna Hartig, who finished with nine points and six rebounds. “I think we are really looking for some to replace … not replace because what ‘E’ bought was pretty much irreplaceable, but for someone to bring the same kind of energy and the defense that she brought.”

UVa will host Wake Forest on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Layups

Littles was named ACC player of the week for her efforts last week in wins over Rider, Louisiana Tech and Georgia. After missing nine games during the fall semester, she was averaging 21 points and seven rebounds per game entering Monday’s contest. Miami’s Shenise Johnson was named the conference’s rookie of the week.