Women's Basketball: WVU Falls at Tennessee
December 20, 2006 10:29 PM | General
December 20, 2006
BOX SCORE
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Candace Parker scored 19 points and collected 10 rebounds and Alexis Hornbuckle added 18 points to lead No. 5 Tennessee to a hard fought 66-51 victory over the West Virginia Mountaineers Wednesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.
Olayinka Sanni scored the game’s first points with a turnaround lay up to give West Virginia (7-5) their only lead of the contest at 2-0. From there, Tennessee (10-1) went on a 25-3 run, pushing their lead to 25-5 on two Parker free throws with 12 minutes to go in the first half. It looked as if another routine home blowout was in order for the Lady Vols.
The Mountaineers had other ideas. Using, an effective 2-3 zone and a strong effort from their bench, West Virginia slowly pulled themselves back into the game.
Center Ranisha White came off the bench in relief of Sanni, who was plagued by first half foul trouble for the fourth consecutive game. White wasted no time making her presence felt, scoring 10 of her career-high 16 points in the first half. White’s efforts sparked an 18-7 Mountaineer run to close the first half. Britney Davis-White ended the first half scoring with a three-pointer, making the score a respectable 32-23 at halftime, and making the home crowd a little antsy.
The Mountaineers shot just 35 percent on 9-26 shooting in the first half but managed to hold a Tennessee team that is averaging 80 points a game this year to just 38 percent from the field. The undersized Mountaineers also battled gamely on the boards, holding a 21 to 19 rebounding advantage at intermission.
The second half began much like the first, when Sanni converted a turnaround lay up to pull the Mountaineers to within eight at 33-25 with 18:29 left to play. That was as close as West Virginia would get the rest of the way. After the teams traded a pair of free throws to make the score 35-27, Tennessee responded with an 8-2 run which was capped by a Hornbuckle three-pointer, stretching the Lady Vols lead to a more comfortable 43-29 advantage with 15 minutes left to play.
From there, the lead hovered between 12 and 15 points for most of the second half, with WVU never being able to mount a serious rally from that point on. Tennessee gained their largest advantage of the game at 66-45 on two Alberta Auguste free throws with 2:46 left to play. The Mountaineers ended the game on a 6-0 run.
Despite solid interior defense and a surprising 38-36 rebounding advantage, the Mountaineers struggled to score, making just 35 percent of their field goal attempts including an ice-cold 1 of 11 from three-point range. The one place where the Mountaineers could find the hole was at the foul line, where they converted 12 of their 15 free throw attempts.
WVU continues to be its own worst enemy by being careless with the basketball. The Mountaineers committed 24 turnovers, which resulted in 34 of the Volunteer’s 61 points.
The Mountaineers had a productive night from their bench, outscoring Tennessee 28-12 in that category.
Sanni joined White in double figures for the Mountaineers, scoring 10 points in just 17 minutes of action. Despite struggling from the field for much of the night, LaQuita Owens chipped in nine points to go with an impressive nine rebounds.
The 15-point difference was the slimmest margin of victory for Tennessee this season.
West Virginia will now have 10 days off before hosting St. Francis, Pa. at the WVU Coliseum on Dec. 30. Tip off is set for 4:30 p.m.
