Women's Basketball: WVU Faces UConn
March 01, 2004 03:45 PM | General
March 1, 2004
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| Paige |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team draws another tough assignment Tuesday night at Connecticut.
Not only is it Senior Night for Maria Conlon, Diana Taurasi and Morgan Valley, but Connecticut is also looking for redemption after a 59-56 road loss at Villanova dropped the Huskies to 23-2 and probably knocked them out of the top spot in the national rankings.
Taurasi, a national player of the year candidate, made just 3 of 13 field goal attempts against Villanova and finished the game with 8 points.
This is the second time this season UConn is playing West Virginia after coming off a loss. Back on Jan. 7, West Virginia played Connecticut after the Huskies lost their first game of the year at home to Duke.
Taurasi led five double-figure Connecticut scorers with 14 points against West Virginia in an easy 82-57 UConn win.
West Virginia (19-8, 10-5) is coming off an 82-74 loss at No. 19 Miami Saturday night. The Mountaineers nearly overcame a 22-point second half deficit, cutting Miami’s lead to six with possession of the ball with less than a minute left. But the Hurricanes made their free throws down the stretch to improve to 21-5 on the year.
Kate Bulger made a career-high 8 three-point field goals on the way to scoring a season-high 28 points. Michelle Carter added 14 and Yolanda Paige contributed 12 points and 12 assists.
Paige was West Virginia’s leading scorer with 14 points the first time the Mountaineers played Connecticut in Morgantown.
Bulger now leads the Mountaineers in scoring with an average of 15.3 points per game. Sherell Sowho is second with an average of 13 points per game, but she has managed to score just 8 points in her last two games against Rutgers and Miami.
Paige is averaging 11.9 points and 8.0 assists per game. The junior has already set the single-season record for assists and now shows 216 entering Tuesday’s game.
Tuesday night’s game ends a brutal six-game stretch that will have seen West Virginia play teams with a combined record of 122-35 as of Monday.
West Virginia is 2-3 so far, having defeated Virginia Tech and Rutgers and losing to Boston College, Villanova and Miami.
Following Tuesday’s game at UConn, West Virginia will take part in the 2004 Big East tournament in Hartford beginning Saturday. Tournament pairings will be announced Tuesday night.
