CHARTLOTTESVILLE - With under 13 minutes left, Virginia's all-everything center DeMya Walker found herself alone at the top of the key and leaned in for a rare three-point attempt-swish.
Walker's fourth three-pointer all season gave Virginia a seemingly insurmountable 18-point lead against a struggling Duke offense, driving the proverbial dagger into Duke's chances for a perfect ACC season. The Blue Devils were staring straight into the possibility of a lopsided loss on the road.
They didn't even blink.
When gut-check time came calling, the Blue Devils emphatically answered with another strong showing of character, confidence and poise. It was the same sort of character that had already helped them to come-from-behind wins against UCLA and Clemson this season.
"[The win] showed a lot of character on our part to be able to come from 18 down," coach Gail Goestenkors said. "I'm really proud of the team overall."
Appropriately, when the Blue Devils faced their biggest deficit of the season in ACC play, they looked toward two of the more unsung players to rally them-forward Peppi Browne and senior reserve Naz Medhanie.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this team is precisely that the players embody that word 'team' in every sense. With leading scorers Michele VanGorp and Nicole Erickson handcuffed by the Virginia defense and team leader Hilary Howard hampered by an ankle injury, Browne stepped forward.
The junior effectively neutralized Walker, snatching a career-high 14 rebounds and leading the team with a hard-earned 20 points, including a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe.
"You see the rebounds and you see her points," Goestenkors said, "but if anybody appreciates great defense, her defense was phenomenal."
While she did indeed keep Walker-who finished with 11 points-in check, Browne's penetration and yeoman's work on the glass kept the Blue Devils in the game when they suffered through an ice-cold stretch offensively in the middle of the game and jump-started her team's run with an offensive putback at the 11:18 mark of the second half.
All of Browne's work, however, would have gone for naught if the Blue Devils had not put the clamps on the Cavaliers and held them to only five points in the final 12 minutes. Perhaps the major reason for the Cavs' offensive demise was the sparingly used Medhanie.
Although she had averaged only 13 minutes a game on the season and seen very few appearances with the game on the line, Medhanie came in at the 13:32 mark and stayed in the game the rest of the way, locking up the lightning-quick Erin Stovall, UVa's second leading scorer.
"We had to put our best defensive unit in there, because we had to get some stops and get some steals so we can generate our offense," Goestenkors said. "Medhanie came in and really gave us a lift defensively. We put her on Stovall, she face-guarded her, tried to keep the ball from her and did a tremendous job.
"She doesn't get a lot of time, but when we need someone to get a big stop, we can count on her."
And lately, the Blue Devils can count on Medhanie for some much-needed offense as well. After starting the season in a horrendous shooting slump, Medhanie has now hit from long range in four consecutive games, including a bomb from the left wing tonight to trim the lead to two points.
Three minutes later, Medhanie hit both ends of a one-and-one to give the Blue Devils a 57-55 lead, their first since 11-10 early in the first half.
"I told the players after the game [that] they showed great character," Goestenkors said. "As the season unfolds, you always find the character of your team, the personality of your team. I've been so happy with this team because we've been in tough situations.
"You hope you don't have to be tested like this; this was a supreme test for us."
And as the season progresses, it appears that the Blue Devils can pass any test their opponents throw at them along the way.
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