Women's Basketball: WVU Travels to Pitt
February 15, 2005 04:41 PM | General
February 15, 2005
 |
||
| Cole |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team travels to Pitt Wednesday night for a Big East Conference clash at the Petersen Events Center.
The Panthers, 11-11, 3-8 under second-year Coach Agnus Berenato, have dropped five straight league contests since winning back-to-back games against Seton Hall and Georgetown. Pitt is also searching for its first conference win this season at home having won all three games on the road.
Six-foot-three freshman center Mercedes Walker is the Panthers’ top scorer averaging 13 points per game. The Philadelphia resident is also pulling down a team-best 8.4 rebounds per game and her size will present problems for West Virginia’s small front line.
Six-foot-three sophomore forward Jennifer Brown has also been effective in the paint for the Panthers averaging 9.1 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.
Outside, 5-foot-10 junior guard Katie Histed is averaging 11.7 points per game and is shooting a team-best 38.9 percent from three-point range.
Pitt is out-rebounding its opponents by an average of nearly three boards per game, due partly to the fact that it is shooting just 35.9 percent from the floor as a team. The Panthers are worse the farther out they get, hitting just 29.7 percent of their three-point tries.
West Virginia will look to use its quickness in the backcourt to negate Pitt’s size in the paint. Six-foot sophomore forward Meg Bulger continues to lead the Big East in scoring with an average of 20.4 points per game. Guards Sherell Sowho and Yolanda Paige average 13.0 and 11.2 points per game respectively.
Freshmen frontcourt players Chakhia Cole (6.8 ppg. and 7.1 rpg.) and Olayinka Sanni (5.7 ppg. and 4.2 rpg.) have come on strong of late.
West Virginia is coming off a tough, 52-51 loss to Villanova last Saturday when the Wildcats won on a last-second shot. West Virginia has dropped three of its last four games to slip to 13-9, 4-7.
West Virginia and Pitt have met 31 times and holds a 17-14 advantage in the series. The Mountaineers have won three of the last four including a 56-36 win last year in Pittsburgh. West Virginia is 6-10 in games played in Pittsburgh.
Wednesday’s game will get underway at 7 pm and MSN’s radio coverage can be heard on West Virginia stations WSWW in Charleston, WHIS in Bluefield, WAJR in Clarksburg and WAJR in Morgantown on tape delay following the WVU men’s game at St. John’s. Yahoo! Sports will also carry the game live on the Internet.
