Lady Buffs signal end to season for UVA-Wise

By Matt Hill
STAR Staff

   BRISTOL, Va. -- The second half for the UVA-Wise Lady Cavaliers Wednesday night was like how most dates are for people who meet through personal ads or on the Internet.
   It was definitely one to forget.
   The Lady Cavaliers shot 4-of-20 from the field during the final twenty minutes in a 54-40 loss to the Milligan Lady Buffaloes in the opening round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament at Virginia High School.
   UVA-Wise was actually ahead 27-12 with 6:28 to go in the first half before going ice cold the rest of the way.
   "We've had some dry spells offensively, so we've seen our end of it," Milligan head coach Rich Aubrey said. "And we've played pretty good defense all year, so we have had some games that have turned into a soccer game."
   Aubrey thought the final six minutes of the first half was huge. Milligan got into a rhythm offensively, and the Lady Cavaliers really cooled off after starting the first half on fire.
   "We were down 15 and we really turned it on," Aubrey said. "We made some shots, but we made a lot happen with our defense. I thought defensively we really turned it around."
   UVA-Wise was ahead 31-29 at the half, but that quickly changed.
   Milligan had eight second half steals, and really put the clamps on the Lady Cavaliers' offense. UVA-Wise went almost 16 minutes without a field goal in the second half.
   "We knew we started off bad, but we knew we were a lot better than that," Milligan point guard Ginny White said. "We knew we were going to have to turn it up, so we didn't give up and we just kept fighting. It was a great team defensive effort to come back."
   White led Milligan in scoring with 12 points, and she thought that the team really picked up the intensity after the opening minutes.
   They were really pumped," White said. "We let them come out and get started. We let them get a good lead on us, and we finally turned the game around. We started getting pumped, and they kind of lost it after we started getting pumped."
   A big key in this game for Milligan was the containment post player of Lauren Carr in the second half. She had 15 in the first half to lead the Lady Cavaliers to the hot start, but only had two in the final twenty minutes.
   Brooke Hardy was also a dangerous early on in the post. She hit three baskets in the first two minutes for UVA-Wise, but was then silent from there on out.
   Aubrey thought shutting them down was a big key to the Lady 'Buffs victory.
   "Carr's a very, very good player," Aubrey said. "In three games against them, we did a very good job against those two post players."
   Vera Conkin also had a nice game for Milligan, as she finished with 10 points.
   Milligan will be back in action tonight against second-seeded Covenant. Tip-off is set for 5:45 p.m.