Women's Basketball: WVU Wins on the Road
January 24, 2004 02:34 PM | General
January 24, 2004
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Meg Bulger came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds to lead West Virginia to an important 69-57 road win at Syracuse Saturday afternoon.
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Bulger, who made 6 of 11 field goal attempts, is coming off a 16-point effort on Wednesday in a win against Marshall.
“Every game is a tribute to my teammates,” said Meg Bulger. “They really keep with me and stay with me and keep me confident. Each game I’m getting more and more confident and comfortable.”
Sherell Sowho contributed 14 points and Yolanda Paige scored 13 and handed out 9 assists to help West Virginia improve to 13-5, 4-2.
West Virginia took control of the game midway through the first half after a Meg Bulger jumper gave the Mountaineers a 21-19 lead. Yolanda Paige followed with a bucket and Kate Glusko nailed a three-pointer to boost West Virginia’s lead to seven, 26-19 at 7:37. A Sowho three and another Paige jumper gave West Virginia’s its biggest lead of the half, 31-19.
Sarah Wegrzynowicz finally stopped the West Virginia run with a three-pointer to cut WVU’s lead to 31-22.
The Mountaineers led at the half, 39-29.
In the second half, Syracuse managed to whittle West Virginia’s lead down to two, 54-52 on a pair of Julie McBride free throws, but the Mountaineers answered with a six-point surge to boost their lead back to eight, 60-52.
Keying the West Virginia run was senior center Michelle Carter, who sat for most of the game with foul trouble. Carter got things going with a free throw and then added a layup to give West Virginia a five-point lead.
Sowho then drained a three from the corner with 4:43 left to push West Virginia’s lead back to eight, 60-52.
The closest Syracuse could get after that was seven, 64-57 on a three-point basket from McBride.
Carter scored all 8 of her points in the game’s final five minutes. Glusko was also a big contributor, hitting 3 of 5 field goal attempts for a season-high 7 points off the bench.
The Mountaineers were able to overcome a 1 of 7 shooting day from leading scorer Kate Bulger, who finished with 3 points.
“In the past couple of years if Katie didn’t play well we weren’t going to win,” said Meg. “I think that is what so special about our team this year. We have so many weapons: Yolanda’s playing great, Sherell’s playing great, we have an inside game, and I think everybody is really playing well and picking up the slack. When Katie’s not shooting well she’s playing defense and being a leader. All of those things are contributing and making us play very well.”
West Virginia made 16 of 29 field goal attempts in the first half for 55.2 percent and finished the game making 26 of 58 for 44.8 percent. The Mountaineers were 9 of 22 from three-point range.
Syracuse shot 42 percent from the floor and hit 7 of 20 three-point attempts.
Julie McBride led Syracuse with 19 points and Chineze Nwagbo added 17.
“We knew they were going to look to kick it inside and once they got it inside they would kick it back out for the three,” said Bulger. “We concentrated on help defense with (Nwagbo) and get back out quick on the three because they’ve got an inside and an outside game.”
West Virginia’s Big East road win was its second this year and only the third for the Mountaineers since Coach Mike Carey took over the program in 2001. WVU’s other two conference road wins have come at St. John’s.
West Virginia has now won four straight after dropping a pair of conference games to Connecticut and Seton Hall.
Syracuse drops to 6-10, 3-3, and has lost all 10 games this year when the opposing team scores 60 points or more.
“We saw that stat before the game and we knew if we could run on them that they didn’t have quite as quick of girls as we did,” said Bulger. “That was to our advantage today.”
West Virginia returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the WVU Coliseum against Georgetown. The Hoyas, 9-7, 3-3, play at Rutgers on Sunday.
