WVU Gets Defensive
January 31, 2004 04:45 PM | General
January 31, 2004
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| Kate Bulger struggles to secure the basketball during Saturday's 56-36 win at Pitt. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) |
PITTSBURGH – Meg Bulger and Sherell Sowho scored 13 points each and West Virginia used a smothering defense to defeat Pitt, 56-36 Saturday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center.
Bulger scored 11 of her 13 points in the first half as West Virginia built a 39-21 halftime lead.
Pitt (6-12, 2-6) had a chance to get back into the game at the start of the second half with the Mountaineers going cold, but the Panthers couldn’t find the basket either. Pitt mustered just two baskets in a seven-minute span and finished the second half scoring 15 points as West Virginia held Pitt to the third lowest scoring total in Big East play this year.
“Defensively we played well the entire game but offensively we struggled at the start of the second half,” said West Virginia coach Mike Carey. “Give a lot of credit to our young ladies. They’re playing hard, they’re playing with a lot of confidence and we came on the road in a Big East gym and came away with a victory.”
West Virginia (15-5, 6-2) jumped on Pitt from the start and led throughout. After a 4-3 start at the first media timeout, WVU went on a 21-5 run to take a 25-8 lead after a pair of free throws by Yolanda Paige. A Paige driving layup at the four-minute mark gave West Virginia’s its first 20-point lead at 31-11. The closest Pitt could get the rest of the half was 16 on two occasions.
Pitt was able to cut its deficit to 16 once in the second half when Cheron Taylor was able to beat the WVU defense down the floor for an easy layup to make the score 39-23, West Virginia.
But the Mountaineers responded a seven-point run to take a commanding 23-point lead. WVU was able to build its big lead despite an off shooting day by leading scorer Kate Bulger, who missed her first nine shots before making a three midway through the second half. Bulger finished with 7 points.
“Last year our other young ladies did not have the confidence if Kate didn’t carry us,” said Carey. “This year, if Kate’s not shooting well that’s okay. Sherell Sowho, Yolanda Paige and Meg Bulger are giving us scoring from other areas. We need that to continue because Kate Bulger is not going to be off every night. When she’s hitting and everyone is hitting we can be a pretty good basketball team.”
“We knew they were going to be keying on Katie a lot so we had to step up and make some high percentage shots,” said Meg Bulger. “Yolanda also did a great job of pushing the ball up the court.”
The story of the game was West Virginia’s ability to defend the Panthers in the half court and rebound the basketball. WVU held a substantial 52-34 rebounding margin and made 10 steals. West Virginia was also able to outscore Pitt 26-16 in the paint and hold the Panthers to just 26.9 percent from the floor (14 of 52).
“The first game against Pitt they out-rebounded us and that started us playing a little bit better,” said Carey. “We’re rebounding a lot better than we did the first game against Pitt.”
Yolanda Paige handed out 11 assists today and now shows 160 for the season. Paige came within four assists of breaking Rosemary Kosiorek’s single season assist record of 203 last year, and is on pace to break it this season.
“She’s going to get us the ball if we’re open,” said Sowho of her teammate.
Janell Dunlap led West Virginia with 9 rebounds.
The victory was the third straight for the Mountaineers on the road in conference play and the sixth straight since losing, 57-50 at Seton Hall on Jan. 10. Coupled with a Georgetown victory over Villanova today, West Virginia is now tied with Notre Dame for second place in the conference standings with a 6-2 record.
“We’ve got to get every win we can on the road because that’s been something that has bee critical for us the last two years that we can’t win on the road in the Big East,” said Carey. “We are proving this year that we can win on the road and we’ve just got to stay focused and continue to improve.”
Stacy Brown led Pitt with 8 points. The Panther’s top scorer, LaToya Kincaid, managed just 6 points – 10 below her season average.
“We just come out and pay hard as a team,” said Sowho, who also finished with 8 rebounds and 6 steals. “They are our rival and they did spank us in here last year. We came into here today saying that’s not going to happen again.”
WVU swept the season series against Pitt and won for the first time in Pittsburgh against the Panthers since 1998. West Virginia’s 15 wins matches its entire season total of a year ago.
WVU remains on the road to face Providence next Wednesday night, Feb. 4. The Friars lost at home today to Seton Hall to drop to 4-14 overall, 0-7 in Big East play.
Last year West Virginia lost at Providence, 75-61.
The Providence contest will be an Internet only broadcast and can be accessed by subscribing to Yahoo! Sports.
