Women's Basketball Beats VCU in WNIT Opener

The Cavalier Women's Basketball team went into the raucous environment of the Siegel Center on Thursday and took down host VCU 52-50 in the opening round of the Women's NIT.

Virginia (17-15) relied heavily on senior Faith Randolph who scored 21 of the Wahoos' points, including a dozen after halftime. A good game from Randolph was important after the sudden departure of the team's leading scorer Mikayla Venson earlier in the week. No other Cavaliers were in double figures, though J'Kyra Brown and Aliyah Huland El - both sophomores - had eight points a piece.

The Rams (23-10) led for most of the game and had an 11 point lead on two occasions in the second half. But Virginia used a 16-3 run over the final seven and a half minutes to steal the victory. The Cavalier defense was especially important during the final period as VCU was only 4 for their last 17 shots. The rims were not kind to the home team, which shot 35% from the floor and made only 7 of 12 free throws.

The Cavaliers will now head to Rutgers on Sunday at 2pm. The Scarlet Knights beat Georgetown tonight 57-55. Rutgers was 18-14 during the regular season and finished 10th (of 14) in the Big Ten.