CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — It nearly was the opposite of what happened a week ago.

Rather than starting fast, as the University of Wisconsin women's basketball team did in beating Mississippi 74-57 at the Pepperdine Tournament, the Badgers stumbled out of the gates Friday night.

And as a result, they saw their brief second-half comeback come to no avail and left John Paul Jones Arena with an 84-60 loss to Virginia in the inaugural women's ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Last season, UW came from 14 points down to beat the Cavaliers 84-78 in the quarterfinals of the WNIT Championship at the Kohl Center.

UW (2-3), which raced out to a 47-18 halftime advantage against the Rebels last weekend, fell behind early this time, watching the Cavaliers (5-3) jump out to a 20-5 lead 7 minutes, 52 seconds into the game.

Virginia pushed it to 33-11 with 4:58 remaining in the first half on a jumper by sophomore guard Monica Wright, who finished with a game-high 27 points on 11-for-17 shooting.

By halftime, the Badgers were staring at a 17-point deficit thanks in large part to the 17 turnovers they committed in the opening half.

"First of all, certainly the name of the game is the turnovers, and you're playing against a team that I think is going to do very, very well in the ACC," UW coach Lisa Stone said in her postgame radio interview. "They've got a veteran team, they've got a veteran coach (Debbie Ryan). … They've got really, really good defenders. ... But we really sped up in that first half."

Junior guard Lyndra Littles scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Virginia, in the process becoming the 25th Cavalier to surpass 1,000 career points.

UW fought back after the break, cutting the deficit to nine on a 3-pointer by senior guard Janese Banks, who had 14 points, with 13:53 left.

But that was as close as the Badgers would get.

UW faded as the game wore on, and the Cavaliers closed the game by outscoring the Badgers 34-19.

Senior guard Jolene Anderson led the Badgers in scoring — she has in all five games so far — with 18 points, but she shot just 8-for-21 from the floor and 2-for-10 from the 3-point line.

UW shot just 35.7 percent from the field, including a 4-for-17 showing on 3-pointers.

Virginia, meanwhile, connected at a 50 percent clip (33-for-66) and made five of its nine 3-pointers.

"I don't like losing, there's no question," said Stone, whose team begins a five-game homestand Sunday against Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne. "And I wish I could have that first half back, and if that second half was the first …

"But you know, ifs are ifs and buts are buts. I'm not going to complain. I like the character of our team. We fought hard, and we're looking forward to coming back home now."