Didn't see this article posted but if it already has been sorry - from the Daily Progress in Hooville
Cavs flame out
Virginia falls to Liberty for 1st loss of season
By Jay Jenkins /
jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7247
November 21, 2006
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For Sharnee Zoll, the third time was not the charm.
Trying desperately to rally the Virginia women’s basketball for a win over Liberty, Zoll came up one basket short as her pull-up runner in the lane with 3 seconds remaining rattled off the rim, which eventually sent Liberty into celebration mode.
Liberty, thanks in part to a career-best 37 points from Megan Frazee, escaped John Paul Jones Arena with a 75-71 win and delivered the Cavs their first loss of the season.
Zoll, who led UVa with 20 points, connected on a pair of lay-ups in the final 18 seconds, took an inbounds pass with 9 seconds left and raced down court before bumping into her own teammate, Lyndra Littles, on her way to putting up what could have been the game-tying basket.
“[Zoll] probably would have had a wide open shot,” said UVa coach Debbie Ryan after her team fell to 3-1 on the season. “I haven’t seen it on tape but it looked to me like she had a good lane to the basket and at worst she gets fouled.”
The miscue culminated an evening of frustration for the Cavaliers, most of which stemmed from Frazee’s second-half performance.
After connecting on just 3 of 8 shots from the floor in the opening half, Frazee torched the Cavaliers for 31 second-half points on 11-for-15 shooting.
“I know you probably think that is unconscious; she is good,” said Liberty coach Carey Green, whose team is now 4-0. “She can have games like she did tonight.”
Frazee, who missed half of last season with an ACL injury, shifted the credit the Flames’ offensive game plan.
“I just try to take what the game gives me,” said Frazee, a triplet who is joined on the team by her two sisters. “In the first half, I had a couple of shots that didn’t fall for me and sometimes that can get a little frustrating, but you just try to realize that there are two halves to a game.”
Virginia certainly knows that now. In fact, Virginia led 57-48 with just over 8 minutes remaining when Frazee keyed a 16-3 run that gave the Flames a lead they would not relinquish. The sophomore scored nine of the Flames 14 points during a 4 ½-minute span.
“We were just trying to switch off on everybody and it worked for a period of time in the second half and then [Frazee] just got totally going,” Ryan said. “She was very difficult to stop.”
Siedah Williams, who chipped in 17 points for UVa, said she had been on the receiving end of a shooting performance like Frazee’s only once.
“I think the only time I can remember that happening was a few years ago against Duke when Alana Beard did the same thing,” Williams said. “Once you get in that zone it is kinda hard to get out of it. You have to have somebody step up and try to contain her.”
Virginia didn’t have that defender, but despite Frazee’s career-best outing, the Cavaliers still had a chance to pull off the comeback.
Trailing 68-62 with 1:20 left, Monica Wright hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key while being fouled.
Frazee answered again, knocking down a jumper from the wing with 52 seconds left.
No one scored again until Zoll hit the first of her coast-to-coast lay-ups. She also added a 3-point play before bumping into Littles and sealing the Cavaliers’ fate.
“She was coming down the right side and she just sliced and came down the middle of the court and, unfortunately, Lyndra was kind of in her way, and tried to get out of the way, but Lyndra should have been following her, not next to her,” Ryan said. “Lyndra needed to stay wide and follow her in.”
For the game, Virginia shot 37.7 percent, which is easily its worst shooting performance of the young season.
“Our shots just weren’t falling,” Ryan said. “We got good shots. We were getting lay-ups for the most part. We just weren’t putting them in.”
- By ballcoach15