Women's Basketball: Mountaineers Down American
November 25, 2006 06:58 PM | General
November 25, 2006
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| LaQuita Owens |
BOX SCORE
LOS ANGELES – LaQuita Owens scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Olayinka Sanni added 14 points and 11 rebounds to lead West Virginia to a 57-55 victory over American in the consolation game of the LMU Ayers Hotel Thanksgiving Classic.
West Virginia overcame 23 turnovers and some shaky free throw shooting down the stretch to even its record at 3-3.
After Sanni made one of two from the line to give West Virginia a 54-52 lead, Chakhia Cole hit a critical 3-point basket to make it 57-51. American’s Tish Curry got free under the basket to pull the Eagles to within four, 57-53.
West Virginia had opportunities to ice the game inside a minute to go, but Britney Davis-White missed the front end of a one-and-one with 28.9 seconds left. LaQuita Owens was able to steal the rebound and was fouled with 24.5 seconds remaining and the Mountaineers now in the bonus.
Owens missed both free throws and on the other end American’s Nicole Ryan was fouled by Davis-White with 11.6 seconds remaining. Ryan hit both free throws to make it 57-55.
Sparkle Davis couldn’t hang onto the basketball underneath the Mountaineer basket, turning the ball over to the Eagles with a chance to either tie it or win it. But Ryan’s desperation 3-point heave with two seconds remaining was pulled down by Davis-White to preserve the victory for West Virginia.
The Mountaineers had a 45-30 rebounding advantage to offset its 23 turnovers.
Both teams had trouble finding their shooting stroke: West Virginia shot 36.7 percent while American made 37.3 percent of its shots.
Liz Hayes led the Eagles, now 1-5, with 20 points.
WVU returns to the WVU Coliseum to face Houston on Thursday, Nov. 30, for a 7 pm tip off.
