WNIT Preview
March 30, 2005 06:29 PM | General
March 30, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team is playing for its first tournament championship since winning the 1989 Atlantic 10 Tournament when it faces Southwest Missouri State Thursday night in the WNIT finals in Springfield, Mo.
 |
||
| Meg Bulger and Ramika McGee embrace after West Virginia's 80-75 double overtime victory at Kentucky in the WNIT semifinals Monday night.
AP Photo |
“If you look at the record books at West Virginia University this is the first year with back to back 20-win seasons,” said Coach Mike Carey. “Coming off the NCAAs last year I thought it was a little disappointing not getting into the NCAAs this year. But yet we came into this tournament trying to prove a point that we are improving as a program and to win a championship it’s important for your program, the community and the University.”
West Virginia advanced to the WNIT championship game by defeating Kentucky 80-75 in double overtime Monday night in Lexington.
Sophomore Meg Bulger scored a game-high 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while senior Sherell Sowho contributed 21 points on seven of 10 shooting. The Mountaineers (21-12) made 11 of 23 from three-point range and overcame an 11-minute scoreless spell to knock off the Wildcats.
“This was the first time this year that I really felt that this team was together and we had some heart and that was a good sign to see for the future,” said Carey.
West Virginia’s other victories in the tournament have come at home against Maine, St. John’s and Wake Forest.
“I thought our seniors stepped up and wanted to continue to play and I thought that rubbed off on the other players,” said Carey. “These last four games at times we’ve played probably our best basketball of the year.”
Bulger comes into Thursday night’s championship averaging a team-best 19.6 points per game. The 6-foot forward has made a team-best 86 three-point field goals and is shooting 46.1 percent overall from the field.
Sowho boosted her scoring average to 12.9 points per game and has made 66 threes this year. Senior Yolanda Paige suffered through a miserable three of 16 shooting performance against Kentucky but still managed to score 10 points and hand out 12 assists while playing all 50 minutes. Paige averages 12.2 points per game and leads the nation with 287 assists.
Those three are expected to be joined in West Virginia’s starting lineup by freshmen Chakhia Cole and Olayinka Sanni. Cole, a 5-foot-10-inch forward, averages 6.9 points and a team-best 7.4 rebounds per game. Sanni, a 6-foot-2-inch center, has boosted her scoring average to 7.2 per game and is averaging 4.8 rebounds per contest.
“We knew Yinka was going to be a good player in our program but we didn’t realize that she was going to play so many minutes early in her career,” said Carey. “She has gotten better game by game and I think she is just going to grow and continue to get better for us.”
Southwest Missouri State won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title with a 15-3 record but was upset by Illinois State 61-57 in the conference tournament.
SMS (24-8) defeated SMU, Gonzaga, Texas A&M and Iowa to reach the finals. Five-foot-10-inch senior guard Jenni Lingor averages 20.0 points per game to lead the Lady Bears. The Tahlequah, Okla., resident is shooting 49.2 percent from the field and has made a team-best 79 three-point baskets. The do-it-all Lingor also leads the team in assists (144) and rebounding (199) and been to the free throw line a team-best 171 times, making 82.5 percent of her attempts.
“She’s a big time guard,” said Carey of Lingor. “They have a couple of guards on their team that are really good players. She can shoot the three, she can take you off the dribble and she can offensive rebound. We played her last year when she was a junior and we’re going to have to do a great job defending her.”
Five-eight junior guard Kari Koch averages 14.6 points per game and has made 58 threes. Six-foot senior forward Nicole Leman averages 10.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and is shooting 49.4 percent from the floor.
Six-foot-two freshman Tiff Terwelp and 5-foot-9 junior Sarah Klaassen are also expected to start for SMS. Terwelp averages 5.3 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while Klaassen averages 7.9 points and 3.4 boards per game.
“They like to shoot a lot of threes and they are shooting better than 50 percent during the WNIT so they’re shooting very well right now,” said Carey. “Defensively they’re going to play a 2-3 match-up so we know what to expect from them and on the other hand they know what to expect from us.”
K.C. Cowgill, a 5-foot-8-inch senior guard, is the Lady Bears’ top player off the bench averaging 9.1 points per game. Southwest Missouri State’s eight losses have come against Richmond, Tulsa, Oklahoma, LSU, Northern Iowa, Evansville, Bradley and Illinois State. All but two of those losses were on the road. SMS is 15-2 this season at the Hammons Center and is 32-2 over the past two seasons at home and has averaged 6,757 fans for its 17 home games this year.
“It’s going to be a tough environment but we’ve played in a tough environment the other night against Kentucky,” said Carey. “It’s going to be so loud and noisy in there and we’re going to have to communicate on the floor.”
West Virginia and Southwest Missouri State have met one previous time last year in the Virginia Islands Paradise Jam Tournament with the Lady Bears claiming an 82-64 decision.
Koch and Lingor were the two key weapons for Southwest Missouri State in the game scoring 29 and 18 points respectively. Sowho and Paige had 14 and 10 points each.
“With some of the quotes they’ve made in the (local) paper they’ve got a lot of confidence right now,” said Carey of SMS. “I guarantee our young ladies are going to come out, play hard and give it our best shot. Win or lose I’m very proud of them because we have shown that we have heart.”
Thursday’s game will tip off at 8 pm and will be televised statewide on West Virginia Public Television. The game is being produced by MediaCom of Missouri and will air on WSWP-TV (Beckley), WPBY-TV (Huntington) and WNPB-TV (Morgantown). Also, fans outside the state can watch the game in the Internet through Sportsview.tv on demand for $8.
MSN’s radio coverage can be heard on the following stations: WAJR-AM (Morgantown), WAJR-FM (Clarksburg), WHIS-AM (Beckley), WSWW-AM (Charleston) and WDNE-FM (Elkins). Fans can also listen to the broadcast on the Internet via Yahoo! Sports through MSNsportsNET.com.
