Women's Basketball: Mountaineers Beaten by Irish
February 22, 2006 10:27 PM | General
February 22, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.- Megan Duffy scored a game-high 22 points, including 17 in the second half, while Charel Allen added 12 off the bench to lead Notre Dame to a 70-58 victory over the West Virginia Mountaineers Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
The Mountaineers controlled the game early and built their largest lead of the contest at 19-10 following a pair of Britney Davis-White free throws with nine minutes remaining in the first half. The Mountaineers used a strong inside game and a 24-11 rebounding advantage to build a 28-24 halftime lead.
Notre Dame (15-10, 6-8) responded with a quick 5-0 run to open the second half, taking the lead at 29-28 on a Megan Duffy 3 with 18:56 remaining in the game. The game was tightly contested through much of the second half and after a Olayinka Sanni lay up at the 9:51 mark, the Mountaineers trailed by just two, 50-48.
The Irish then caught fire, going on a 17-6 run over the next seven minutes, to take control of the game and build a 67-54 lead with 2:50 remaining.
“We executed our offense a lot better and were much more intense on defense in the second half,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “That second half was about as good as we can play.”
West Virginia coach Mike Carey was frustrated with his team’s play in the second half.
“We came out and quit executing. We were kicking it inside and they were triple teaming us and we weren’t doing a good enough job of kicking it back out. We were standing around on offense and standing around on defense,” Carey said.
As he has many times since Meg Bulger’s season-ending injury, Carey eluded to the lack of a floor leader playing a large role in his team’s struggles.
“We just do not do the things it takes to win. We want to win, but we just don’t know how to and there isn’t a player on the floor to lead them right now,” Carey said.
West Virginia (12-13, 4-10) was led by Chakhia Cole with 16 points while Sanni and LaQuita Owens each added 12.
West Virginia shot 40 percent from the field (23 of 57) while the Irish shot 53 percent (27 of 51).
Tameka Kelly sat out tonight due to dizziness stemming from an injury that occurred during yesterday’s practice.
Despite the loss, the Mountaineers can still make the Big East Tournament with a win in either of their last two games, at South Florida on Saturday, or at home next Tuesday night against Villanova.
West Virginia will now head south for a Saturday night game against South Florida in Tampa. Tip time from the Sun Dome is set for 7:00 p.m.
