Women Face Marshall
January 10, 2005 03:34 PM | General
January 10, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team looks to build upon Saturday’s 15-point victory at Providence by facing a 5-7 Marshall team in Charleston Tuesday night.
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| Meg Bulger leads West Virginia with an average of 19.4 points per game heading into Tuesday night's game against Marshall.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
The Mountaineers (10-3) snapped a three-game losing streak with its 60-45 win at Providence, but the game wasn’t as lopsided as the score might indicate.
West Virginia led the 1-13 Lady Friars by just six points at halftime and saw a double-digit lead erode to just four points midway through the second half. The Mountaineers have had great difficulty scoring points in their last four games, topping 60 just twice (Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Providence).
"We're working really hard on defense and I think sometimes we get kind of tired on offense," said sophomore guard Meg Bulger. "It's kind of a lack of execution and our spacing ... we're not moving. I think once we kind of understand the offense a little bit better with our moving and our cuts then it will be a lot easier to score."
Because West Virginia was effective earlier in the year getting easy transition baskets off its defense, teams recently have been taking that away.
"You see teams not rebounding and sending two and three girls back just to stop that," said Bulger. "Any way we can rebound and get the break going is really going to be to our advantage."
Bulger has been West Virginia’s one constant offensive threat averaging 19.4 points per game, but her shooting has slipped to 46.9 percent after making better than 50 percent of her shot attempts through the first seven games of the season.
Senior guard Sherell Sowho has cooled after a torrid start and has seen her scoring average reduced to 14 points per game after scoring just 24 points in her last three games. Sowho was replaced by sophomore Kate Glusko in West Virginia’s starting lineup against Providence but is listed as a probable starter for Marshall.
Senior Yolanda Paige is averaging 11.1 points and 8.0 assists per game and recently set the WVU career record for assists and she now shows 730. But West Virginia coach Mike Carey is looking for more offense from his 5-foot-6 senior point guard, a preseason all-Big East pick.
Paige made six of her seven field-goal attempts against Providence and finished the game with 14 points, snapping a two-game streak where she made just 11 of 30 field-goal attempts in losses to Boston College and Seton Hall.
West Virginia freshman Chakhia Cole is coming off a 10-point 15-rebound double-double against Providence to boost her averages to 5.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. She will start at one forward spot while 6-foot-2 senior Ramika McGee is expected to start at center.
McGee is averaging 2.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Six-foot-two freshman Olayinka Sanni injured her ankle in the Providence win and her availability for Tuesday night’s game against Marshall is uncertain. If Sanni can’t go that leaves West Virginia with just one other center on its roster in 6-foot-2 JC transfer Jeriece Lee (0.3 ppg., 0.4 rpg.)
Marshall has lost three straight including a 78-62 decision at Kent State Saturday afternoon. Five-foot-eight guard Sikeetha Shepard-Hall is the Herd’s top scorer averaging 13 points per game. Five-foot-10 sophomore forward Crystal Champion averages 10.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.
"They're very quick, they're aggressive and they take it to the hoop strong so we're definitely going to have to come out and defend them," said Bulger.
West Virginia leads the all-time series by a 28-14 count and has won three of the last four and four of the last six. Last year West Virginia won 79-53 behind Yolanda Paige’s game-high 19 points.
Marshall’s last win came in 2001, 74-72.
The game will tip off at 5:30 pm and will be televised statewide by West Virginia Public Television: WNPB (Morgantown), WSWP (Beckley) and WPBY (Huntington).
