Women's Basketball: WVU To Face Villanova
February 27, 2006 04:40 PM | General
February 27, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Despite being on a season-long seven-game losing streak, the West Virginia University women’s basketball team could lose an eighth straight game on Tuesday night against Villanova and still make the 12-team Big East tournament to be played in Hartford, Conn., beginning Saturday, March 4.
West Virginia (12-14, 4-11) is essentially fighting it out with Providence and Seton Hall for the final tournament spot. Georgetown, at 3-12, can’t jump past the Mountaineers because West Virginia owns the tiebreaker and Syracuse is two games behind WVU in the league standings.
Seton Hall, which defeated West Virginia, 67-61 in overtime on Jan. 3, must win on the road at St. John’s, have Providence lose at Louisville and have West Virginia lose at home to Villanova to make the tournament. Meanwhile, Providence, which beat West Virginia, 57-55 on Feb. 7, must win at Louisville and have West Virginia lose to Villanova on Tuesday to earn a Big East tournament spot.
If West Virginia qualifies for post-season play, it will be doing so by backing in. The Mountaineers have failed to score more than 58 points in each their last seven losses to Connecticut, Providence, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Pitt, Notre Dame and South Florida.
Since beating No. 13-ranked DePaul, 82-70 on Jan. 31, West Virginia is 1-7 without its leading scorer Meg Bulger, who injured her knee in the St. John’s loss on Jan. 29. With Bulger, the Mountaineers were 11-7 and had three of their four conference victories.
Sophomore center Olayinka Sanni leads West Virginia with a 13-points-per-game average, while sophomore forward Chakhia Cole averages 10.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. West Virginia, once one of the top field-goal shooting teams in the country, is now shooting 46.5 percent overall including 43.7 percent in Big East play.
Villanova (17-9, 8-7) has won 31 of its last 34 games in February and defeated West Virginia, 75-59 in Philadelphia earlier this season. The Wildcats are 15-5 overall against the Mountaineers in all-time series play and have won four straight at the Coliseum.
Tip off for Tuesday night’s game is set for 7:30 pm.
