WVU Prevails
February 06, 2007 09:34 PM | General
February 7, 2007
BOX SCORE
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – LaQuita Owens scored 17 points and Olayinka Sanni added 16 to help West Virginia to a 66-42 victory over St. John’s Tuesday night at the WVU Coliseum. The victory was West Virginia’s 16th of the season and boosts the Mountaineers conference record to 7-4.
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| Olyainka Sanni muscles in for two of her 16 points Tuesday night in West Virginia's 66-42 victory over St. John's at the WVU Coliseum.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“I’m just happy to get this win. We needed to get a win coming off that loss (at Notre Dame),” said West Virginia coach Mike Carey.
The Mountaineers had little trouble with the Red Storm, building a 15-point first half lead by holding St. John’s to just seven field goals and 28 percent shooting.
“We held them to 28 percent shooting in the first half,” Care said. “We’re playing a lot of people and a lot of combinations. Playing a lot more people just throws your timing off a little in everything. I really saw it on the offensive end. We were running into each other and our spacing wasn’t that good.”
The Mountaineers needed an easy victory tonight; West Virginia has several players banged up and injured.
“I’m very proud of the girls. They did what it took to win the game,” Carey said. “I thought we got the ball into Yinka early. We could have probably gotten it into her a little more but she doesn’t have her legs right now. She’s having a lot of problems with her knees so we tried to take her out some.
“We played a lot more people trying to get some fresh people in there,” he added.
Sparkle Davis contributed 10 points, though she made just 3 of her 12 field goal attempts. Chakhia Cole pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
St. John’s finished the game shooting just 34 percent, 16 of 47, and committed 18 turnovers. Monique McLean had 12 points and eight rebounds for the Red Storm, now 7-14, 3-7.
West Virginia is now entering the teeth of their schedule, playing at No. 22 Rutgers on Sunday before finishing up the regular season with South Florida, Pitt, Cincinnati and Louisville. All five remaining teams have winning record.
“I’ve given them two days off,” Carey said. “We don’t play until Sunday so we’ll worry about classes the next two days and rehab and all of that and try to get their legs back.”
The Scarlet Knights are playing their best basketball of the year, knocking off nationally ranked Michigan State and Marquette in back-to-back games before tonight’s game at No. 4 UConn.
“Rutgers, needless to say, they are going to be gunning for us after last year in the tournament,” Carey said. “The game is on ESPN2 so it’s on national TV. We want Rutgers to bring their best because we’re going to bring our best.”
