Women's Basketball: WVU Wins FIU Tourney
November 27, 2004 09:48 PM | General
November 27, 2004
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MIAMI – Yolanda Paige scored 18 points and handed out five assists to lead West Virginia to a 58-49 victory at Florida International in the championship game of the FIU/Herald Thanksgiving Tournament.
For her efforts in the two-day tournament Paige was named MVP.
Sherell Sowho, also named to the all-tournament team, added 12 points for the Mountaineers, now 4-0 on the season.
After a slow start, West Virginia took an 11-point first-half lead after a pair of free throws from freshman center Olayinka Sanni, who finished the game with a season-high seven points.
WVU got its advantage to 17 on back-to-back three-point plays by Paige to make the score 30-13. Then FIU scored the final seven points of the half to trim West Virginia’s lead to 30-20 at the break.
The Golden Panthers made a 9-2 run at the start of the second half to close to within three, 32-29, following a Faeza Bouderra three-point basket.
Paige responded with a basket inside to put the Mountaineers up by five, but FIU eventually closed West Virginia’s lead to one, 35-34, on a Milena Tomova three-pointer.
Sanni answered inside with a basket and Sowho and Chakia Cole added layups to push the Mountaineers lead to seven, 41-34.
Leading by five, 43-38, West Virginia got back-to-back three-pointers by Sowho to make it 49-38 with 7:09 remaining. Cole kept West Virginia’s margin at 11 on a three-point play where she made two stick-back attempts before finally converting the third.
Tomova led Florida International with 16 points. LaQuetta Ferguson added 13 for the Golden Panthers, which fell to 2-2 and lost their own tournament for the second straight year.
West Virginia returns to the Coliseum to face Longwood (Va.) on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 7 pm. Longwood makes the jump from Division II to Division I this season. The Longwood game is the first of a four-game homestand for the Mountaineers.
