Virginia was able to slow down reigning Patriot League player of the year, Jade Edwards, who only scored 9 points on 2 – 8 shooting.  The fact that she had 11 assists ought to tell you that a lot of other Eagles scored: five players in double figures.  Emily Johns came off the bench and hit everything she tried:  4 – 4 from the field, 1 – 1 from three, and 2 – 2 from the free throw line.  Riley DeRubbo similarly came off the bench and proceeded to go 4 – 6 from deep.  It was too broad an attack.

American      69
Virginia         56

Negative

When Camryn Taylor plays, she’s a load down low.  But she picked up her 2nd foul early in the 2nd quarter and her fourth late in the 3rd.  She only played 20 minutes on the night before fouling out. Virginia had a size advantage and wasn’t able to capitalize on that because of Taylor’s foul problems.

Positive

The reserve roles are coming into focus.  Filling in for Taylor, Penn transfer Eleah Parker deputized well down low, going 4 – 7 and pulling down a pair of offensive rebounds.  In just 6 minutes.  I don’t know why she didn’t get more playing time because American had no answer for her in the low blocks.  Kaydan Lawson is the first Wahoo off the bench and she’s a big guard who can play down low as well.  She’s not scoring as well this year but she’s a useful, confident player.

Negative

Opponent’s three-point shooting.  Stop me if you’ve heard this before: a team previously sucky from three-point range comes to the JPJ and has a season-best night from deep.  Oh wait, that would be the men, as I’ve written several times this season already.  Except it was true this night as well.  American entered the game shooting 23% from beyond the arc, only to depart on the heels of a 10 – 17 night.

Positive

Virginia equaled their season percentage from the line.  The Cavaliers went 9 – 16, or 56.3%.  After their performance versus George Washington, this could be seen as a positive, or at the very least, progress.  But not really.  This is still really bad, an entire team shooting with Shaq levels of incompetence.

Negative

Turnovers.  The two teams combined for 39 turnovers, including an ungodly 26 in the first half (each team with 13 apiece.)  Virginia was able to make American pay, scoring 25 points off of 21 turnovers.

For much of the past decade I have really only watched 1st class women’s NCAA basketball: the UConns, Baylors, Oregons, Marylands, South Carolinas and Stanfords of the world.  Watching these last five UVa games – a bottom-tier ACC team playing its out of conference tune-ups – has been eye-opening.  So very many turnovers.  At first blush, it seems that there are two contributing factors.  First, there are many more stripped balls than you will find in the men’s game.  Probably 10 of the 39 T.O.s were balls stripped out of an attacker’s hands.  I think it’s because women simply can’t hold onto the ball as hard as men, so it is much easier to swipe the ball.  And secondly, the women get called for traveling more than the men.  It’s the same body movement, it’s just that the women lack the power and fluidity of the men, so when they do it, it just looks like a travel.  In the Virginia vs George Washington game, I would bet that were eight or nine travels called.

Positive

In-bounds plays.  Tina Thompson draws out really great in-bounds plays.  Best one of the night:  from the scorer’s table, Amandine Toi found Parker in the paint.  Easy bucket as Parker had sealed her defender out the paint, effectively suckering her to front Parker.  In a closer game, it would have been a demoralizing play.

Negative

It was a Jekyll-and-Hyde third quarter.  Despite losing Taylor to fouls early in the quarter, Virginia closed a 10-point deficit down to just a single bucket.  Parker was feasting in the block and then Thompson inexplicably took her out and went small.  American went on an 11 – 0 run and blew the Cavaliers out of the game.

Positive

This was a frustrating loss, but still much better to watch than the men.  Bennett and the Boys were losing to JMU 24 – 14 at halftime.  You’d have to pay to watch that game.