Dear Old U.Va.

Wright, Mohammed Lead Cavs Over DT3

Friday, November 07 2008 by Tim

Tonight was Cavalier fans’ first chance to get a look at a team full of exciting freshmen, but two upper classmen stole the show. Junior Monica Wright and Senior Aisha Mohammed (Pictured, right) each scored 27 points to lead the ‘Hoos over DT3 91-77 in exhibition play.

Head Coach Debbie Ryan rotated through several lineups in the game – sometimes to try out various combinations, other times because of foul trouble (specifically with Freshman Moorer). The production on both sides of the ball fluctuated as the team found its chemistry. But on a night when the Cavaliers were missing one of their biggest playmakers in Lyndra Littles, they left little doubt that they will be a deep, strong team during the 2008-2009 season.

The starting lineup for the night was a nice blend of young and old – a freshman, a sophomore, a junior and two seniors. Freshman point guard Ariana Moorer got a start in her first game as a Cavalier. Sophomore forward Kelly Hartig and Junior Monica Wright joined Seniors Britnee Millner and Aisha Mohammed to complete the starting lineup.

Virginia’s roster includes four freshman and none of them have been more highly anticipated than point guard Ariana Moorer (Pictured, right). With the loss of Paulisha Kellum to injury, Moorer’s importance increased astronomically. Moorer did not look like an All-American today, but she definitely showed the promise that she could run the offense and lead the Cavaliers this season. Her ball control was quite good and her defensive skills seemed better than I had anticipated. She did get into some foul trouble, causing Ryan to pull her out of the game in favor of letting Britnee Millner and Monica Wright run point. She may not have had a perfect game but if this is a sign of what we can expect from her and what her starting point is as she grows as a Cavalier, we can expect good things from her.

The other three freshman each played quality minutes as well. Whiney Edwards scored seven points and Chelsea Shine added six. Whitney’s twin sister Britney added two points. Whitney Edwards and Shine, in particular, looked like very quality additions to the roster. Britney Edwards didn’t seem to get as much playing time.

I have to say that I was excited about this team coming into the season and this game did nothing to quell that excitement. Getting 54 combined points from Monica and Aisha is impressive enough by itself, but knowing that we had another 20 point scorer sitting on the bench in Lyndra Littles just makes that even more amazing. With the three of them getting lots of minutes as the season goes on, the pressure will only be on the point guards to distribute the ball, not make shots and that will help a lot as we break in our first non-Sharnee Zoll point guard in what seems like a long time.

The Cavaliers do have some things to work on. They were not very consistent (somewhat due to the lineup changes) on the offensive front and they also had some problems on defense, particularly on perimeter defense where DT3 managed to do a lot of their damage. The Cavaliers also had pretty serious problems on the free throw line, going only 13 for 27 from the charity stripe. Monica Wright could have had a 30+ point game if she had shot better than 50% on her game-high twelve attempts.

The women start play “for real” next Friday at 7pm against High Point at John Paul Jones Arena. They then head off to Knoxville, TN the next Monday to face defending National Champion Tennessee, also at 7pm. 

I’ve put up about 80 pictures from the game in the photo gallery, so please go check that out.

Notes:

• The ladies appeared to be wearing new uniforms. Not a whole lot different, I don’t think, but I’m pretty sure they were different.
• The dual three-point lines on the floor look a little weird. The men’s line is orange while the women’s line is blue. I think probably 80% of the three-point shots taken tonight were from behind the men’s line and you have to wonder if the dual lines cause that or if they would have taken them that far back if the orange line wasn’t there.
• There were at least nine men’s basketball players in attendance watching the game. Baker, Soroye, Sene, Jones, Landesberg, Diane, Scott, Tucker and Farrakhan were all there and made good use of their good parking space behind JPJ by making a Quiznos run at halftime. If eating at Quiznos will make me a better basketball player, I’m going to be giving them a lot more business in the near future.
• Britnee Millner had a block on a shot that looked like something worthy of a 6’10” basketball player. Except she’s only 5’10”. Very impressive.
• That the Circuit City sponsored relay at the half was a bit of a mess would normally not have been noteworthy – a bunch of kids doing wheelbarrow races and three-legged races tends to be that way. But the fact that it occurred at the end of the week in which Circuit City announced the closing of the local store made it a bit ironic.