Women's Tourney Preview
March 04, 2004 04:39 PM | General
March 4, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Unlike past years when the West Virginia University women’s basketball team was just happy to make the Big East tournament, this year the Mountaineers have plans on staying for a few days.
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| Guard Sherell Sowho is coming off a 24-point effort at UConn last Tuesday. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
West Virginia, the tournament’s sixth seed, faces No. 11-seeded St. John’s in the first round of the Big East tournament Saturday night at the Hartford Civic Center.
In order for the Mountaineers to advance, Coach Mike Carey believes his team is going to have to play its style of basketball.
“We’ve got to compete against St. John’s,” he said. “If we do that and play our style of basketball then we should be in good shape.”
West Virginia completed a brutal stretch of games that saw it play its final six games against teams in the upper half of the league, including its last two on the road at nationally ranked Miami and Connecticut.
West Virginia got through that stretch with a 2-4 record, posting solid victories over Virginia Tech and Rutgers. Because West Virginia’s post season resume also shows losses to Delaware State, Northwestern and Seton Hall, the Mountaineers (19-9) are going to have to play well in Hartford to earn their first NCAA tournament bid since 1992.
“We have to win at least one and maybe two in the Big East tournament,” he said. “We can’t go up there and lose our first game.”
West Virginia is facing a St. John’s team that is making its first Big East tournament appearance in three years. The Mountaineers were stretched to the in their previous meeting at St. John’s earlier this year in Jamaica, coming from behind to win 69-67.
Six-foot forward Danielle Chambers came off the bench to score 19 points for St. John’s. Five-seven guard Kim Mac Millan added 18 points and talented freshman Angie Clark contributed 14.
“What I remember from that game was that we did not play well at all in the first half,” said Carey.
“It was a back and forth game,” added St. John’s coach Kim Barnes-Arico. “We went up early and had an eight to 10-point lead in the first half and they came out in the second half and went on a run. We pressed them down at the end and cut their lead down to two.”
Michelle Carter and Sherell Sowho scored 16 points each for the Mountaineers, which snapped a 12-game Big East road losing streak that spanned two years against St. John’s.
Mac Millan is the Red Storm’s leading scorer averaging 15 points per game. She has made 92 of 244 three-point attempts for 37.7 percent. Clark is averaging 12.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while Secret Stubblefield, a 5-foot-6 guard, is averaging 11.9 points per game.
“They’re a much improved team,” said Carey. “We did beat them the first time at their place but that means nothing going into the tournament. We’re going to have to contend with their post players and we’re going to have to contend with their shooters.”
In its last game on Tuesday, St. John’s dropped a 69-38 decision at Virginia Tech. Guard Shemika Stevens was the only St. John’s player to reach double figures with 10 points.
The Red Storm defeated Seton Hall, 61-52 at home on Feb. 29 to seal their post season berth. St. John’s owns a 10-17 overall record but has won just one of its last five games.
West Virginia is also looking to get back on track after losing a pair on the road at Miami and Connecticut to end the regular season.
Against UConn on Tuesday, freshman Meg Bulger had one of her best performances of the season scoring 21 points and grabbing four rebounds in 32 minutes of action. She is now averaging an even 10 points per game and is a strong candidate to be named Big East rookie of the year to be announced Friday at the women’s basketball awards banquet.
Older sister Kate Bulger leads the team in scoring with an average of 15.2 points per game. Also averaging double figures are junior guards Sherell Sowho (13.4 ppg.) and Yolanda Paige (11.7 ppg.).
“Their guards are just exceptional and their inside players have improved,” said Barnes-Arico. “Paige has had just a tremendous year, she’s an exceptional passer and she’s able to the two wings, Bulger and Sowho, the ball and they’ve made some shots.”
The West Virginia-St. John’s game will begin a half hour after the Rutgers-Seton Hall game set to tip off at 6 pm.
The first session on Saturday will feature Boston College against Syracuse in the first game and Virginia Tech playing Georgetown in the second.
Connecticut, Villanova, Notre Dame and Miami each received first-round byes.
The winner of the West Virginia-St. John’s game will face Villanova Sunday night at 8 pm.
Notebook: With the WVU men playing at Miami Saturday night, MSN will join the women’s broadcast in progress after the men’s game is completed … Yahoo! Sports will carry the women’s broadcast in its entirety … the Mountaineers have a 2-7 record in Big East tournament games; West Virginia’s two wins have come against Seton Hall in 1997 and 1998 … senior Kate Bulger is just nine points shy of becoming just the fourth player in WVU history to score more than 1,700 points for her career … Sherell Sowho also recently reached the 1,000-point mark and currently shows 1,025 career points to rank 21st … West Virginia’s six-game turnaround from a year ago is the second best in Big East history; Rutgers had an eight-game improvement last year … West Virginia’s sixth place finish in the Big East was its highest since the league did away with a two-division format in 1998 … with one more victory West Virginia can become just the fifth team in school history to have 20 wins in a season; the last time West Virginia had a 20-win season was in 1992 … MSG, NESN and Fox Sports Florida will televise both Big East tournament semifinal games on Monday night … ESPN2 will carry the championship game live at 7 pm.
