Villanova Preview
February 11, 2005 03:21 PM | General
February 11, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia gets another crack at Villanova Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Chakhia Cole leads West Virginia in rebounding with an average of 7.1 boards per game.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
In a previous meeting against the Wildcats back on Jan. 23, Villanova pulled out a 58-52 victory after West Virginia couldn’t hold onto a 10-point first-half lead. Liad Suez led Villanova with 21 points and nine rebounds. Jackie Adamshick added 13 points and Betsy McManus contributed 10.
Both teams shot less then 45 percent from the field but the difference came at the foul line where Villanova went 11 of 15 and West Virginia was just four of nine.
Meg Bulger led the Mountaineers with 16 points and Yolanda Paige contributed 12.
Bulger continues to pace the conference in scoring with an average of 20.4 points per game. She had her 10th 20-point game of the season last Tuesday night against St. John’s by scoring 23 – 20 of which came in the second half. The sophomore has topped 30 points four times including a career-high 36 in a loss to Marshall.
Bulger is expected to be joined by Paige, Sherell Sowho, Chakhia Cole and Olayinka Sanni in the West Virginia starting lineup.
Cole and Sanni, both freshmen, have come on of late. Cole is the team’s leading rebounder averaging 7.1 per game while also boosting her scoring average to 6.8 points per contest. Sanni recently scored a career-high 21 points in a road loss at Georgetown and added 12 last Tuesday in the St. John’s win. She is now averaging 5.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game.
After beginning the year 9-0, West Virginia (13-8, 4-6) has managed just a 4-8 mark since. Five of those eight losses have come on the road. The Mountaineers, however, are a completely different team at home, averaging 73.7 points and shooting 47.9 percent in 10 games at the Coliseum.
By comparison, West Virginia is averaging 12 fewer points and shooting nearly 12 percentage points less from three-point range (44.2 percent at home compared to 32.8 percent on the road) on the road.
The one West Virginia player most comfortable at home is senior guard Sherell Sowho, who averages 16.6 points per game at the Coliseum compared to just 8.7 points in games played on the road. Sowho is shooting 58.7 percent at the Coliseum and just 38.2 percent away from the facility.
The Mountaineers are 9-1 at the Coliseum this year and have won 23 of their last 26 games in Morgantown under fourth-year coach Mike Carey.
West Virginia is tied with Georgetown for eighth place in the conference standings. Villanova is four spots ahead of the Mountaineers in fourth place with a 6-4 record.
St. John’s and Villanova are a half-game ahead of West Virginia with 5-6 marks.
Villanova holds a 13-5 advantage in the series and has won nine of the last 10. West Virginia upset the Wildcats in the quarterfinals of last year’s Big East tournament in Hartford, Conn., 58-47.
Prior to that, the Mountaineers’ last win over Villanova came at home in 1998, 59-55.
Following Villanova, West Virginia has regular season home games remaining against Georgetown, Providence and Connecticut and road games at Pitt and Notre Dame.
Saturday’s game will tip off at 2 pm and will be televised by Big East TV (John Sanders and Margo Plotzke). Stations carrying the game are Fox Sports New York, Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh and Fox College Sports.
Briefly: Mike Carey will coach his 500th career game Saturday against Villanova … Carey owns a 351-148 career record including a 63-46 mark at WVU … West Virginia’s game against Villanova is the sixth of eight televised games this year for the women’s program … WVU has regular season TV games remaining against Georgetown (MSN) and Connecticut (Big East TV) … the Mountaineers’ most effective player against Villanova has been Yolanda Paige, who is averaging 13.3 points in six previous meetings against the Wildcats … no other returning WVU players average double figures against Villanova … Paige needs 27 more assists to crack that nation’s top 15 all-time … occupying 15th place is Penn State’s Tina Nicholson with 826 … Paige has played more minutes than any other player in school history with 4,038 minutes heading into the Villanova game … that averages out to about 67 hours worth of action on the hardwood … Meg Bulger is 17 of 27 from three-point range (63.0 percent) in her last six games … West Virginia and Villanova are two of the top three-point shooting teams in the Big East … the Wildcats are first in the conference with an average of 6.1 threes per game while the Mountaineers are second, averaging 5.7.
