FINAL STATS

Charlottesville, VA – Guards Ariana Moorer and Ataira Franklin scored 23 and 19 points, respectively to lead Virginia of the Atlantic Coast Conference to an 84-41 victory over Wagner in the opening round of the Marriott Cavalier Classic.

The Seahawks (2-10) will face Elon (5-6) in the third-place game of the Classic on Wednesday at 4:30 pm while UMass (5-8) will meet host Virginia (11-2) in the championship game at 7:00 pm. UMass defeated Elon 76-56 in the first game of today's doubleheader.

Freshman point guard Jacqui Thompson (Southampton, PA/ St. Basil Academy) and junior forward Marie-Laurence Archambault (Montreal, Quebec/ Montmorency) paced the Seahawks with 11 points apiece.

Senior forward Brittney Thorpe (Newport News, VA/ Heritage) was in the starting lineup for the second straight game and she turned in her second consecutive solid outing. After going for a season-high 12 points in the Seahawks' overtime loss to New Hampshire on Dec. 21, Thorpe followed up that effort with seven points and five rebounds vs. Virginia's tall and athletic front line. The 6-0 Thorpe has averaged 9.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in her last two outings.

Wagner stood shoulder to shoulder with Virginia for a good part of the first half. When Archambault drained a three-pointer off a feed from redshirt junior forward Chanez Robinson (Newark, NJ/ Shabazz) with 9:37 left to play in the opening half, it put the Seahawks out in front 13-12. But Jazmin Pitts answered with a three-pointer of her own which gave the Cavaliers the lead for good and triggered  a 22-0 run that was a part of a 28-2 half-ending run which put Virginia in command 40-15 at intermission.

The Cavs then opened the second half with a 20-4 run in opening up a 60-19 lead with 11:25 to go.

Wagner's leading scorer and rebounder, senior Kelly Clark (Neptune, NJ/ St. Rose), was held to five points, which tied her season low (at Penn State, 12-18) on 1-of-7 shooting from the field while pulling down five rebounds. The five points scored by Clark marked just the third time this season the 6-3 center failed to reach the double-digit mark in scoring. Clark continues to lead the Seahawks in scoring (12.7) and rebounding (7.1). Clark has now scored 875 career points, leaving her just 125 shy of the 1,000-point mark.  

Thompson's 11 points marked the third time this season the freshman has hit for double figures as she had 15 in a victory over Columbia (11/16) and 12 vs. Lehigh (11-27).

After going through a relatively cold shooting spell, Archambault is beginning to heat up from the field. With her 11-point outing vs. Virginia, the 6-0 wing has hit for double figures in consecutive games for the first time this season as he had a solid 10-point outing vs. New Hampshire (12/21). In her last two games, vs. New Hampshire and Virginia, Archambault has hit 44 percent from the field (7-of-16) and 42 percent (5-of-12) from beyond the arc while averaging 10.5 points in those two contests.

Sophomore forward Laura Amorosa (Kirkland, Quebec/  Phillips Academy), playing in just her third game of the season due to a knee injury, tallied a season-high five points.

The meeting between Wagner and Elon will mark the first between the schools. The Phoenix are members of the 11-school Southern Conference which is comprised of Appalachian State, The Citadel, Charleston, Chattanooga, Davidson, Furman, Georgia Southern, UNC Greensboro, Samford, Western Carolina, and Wofford.