Losses pile up for Virginia schools

Tough night for the state's teams as only James Madison was able to prevail, and that was at the expense of an understandably distracted Longwood.

#6 Ohio State 74, Virginia 46: The Cavaliers drew the toughest of the ACC's matchups in the fourth annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge, and it showed as the Buckeyes cruised after closing the first half on a 15-4 run while Virginia scored in the 40s for the third time in four games.

James Madison 66, Longwood 41: Lauren Jimenez was solid again with 12 points and 9 rebounds in just 16 minutes. Tarik Hislop led JMU's balanced attack with 13 points and Kiara Francisco added 12 on a night when the Dukes didn't need much from Dawn Evans. Evans finished with just 8 points on 2-of-12 shooting (0 of 4 from 3-point range) in 26 minutes. Chelsea Coward scored 12 points to lead the Lancers, who shot just 22.9 percent from the field. Earlier in the day, the school announced that Lancers head coach Kristin Caruso had been suspended indefinitely pending the resolution of a personnel matter.

American 46, George Mason 43: In their previous game, the Patriots (2-4) led Radford by eight points with 5:35 to play, only to get outscored 19-4 the rest of the way in a 63-56 loss. On Thursday, the Pats were up eight with 7:28 left. This time, they were outscored 13-3 the rest of the way. Gotta finish, guys.

Minnesota 63, Virginia Tech 58: Unlike Mason, the Hokies got better as the game went on and really made things interesting in the final minutes. It was falling behind 23-6 that proved a bit too much to overcome. Aerial Wilson led the Hokies with 14 points and Alyssa Fenyn added 12. Brittni Montgomery had 10 rebounds, and Elizabeth Basham chipped in 9 points.

East Carolina 77, VCU 72: Courtney Hurt was immense with 34 points (on 12-of-18 shooting, 2-of-3 from 3-point range and 10 rebounds. But the Pirates pulled away in the second half when, with VCU leading 63-61, Ariana Jackson and Kim Gay hit back-to-back 3-pointers to send ECU off on the decisive 12-1 run. Jackie Brewer (10 points) was the only other Ram in double figures. VCU (2-2) also hurt itself by missing 15 of its 37 free throw attempts, including 10 of the 21 in the second half.