WVU Women Win
March 17, 2007 10:40 PM | General
March 17, 2007
BOX SCORE | GAME NOTES | PHOTO GALLERY
AUSTIN, Texas - Chakhia Cole did most of the damage in the first half and Yinka Sanni took control in the second half to lead No. 11-seeded West Virginia to a 65-52 victory over No. 6 seed Xavier in an NCAA tournament first-round game at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, Saturday night.
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| West Virginia forward Chakhia Cole scores two of her game-high 21 points on Saturday against Xavier in an NCAA tournament first-round game. WVU won the game 65-52.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
"I am very proud of our players," said West Virginia coach Mike Carey. "We came in here believing we could win, and they did a great job."
Especially Cole in the first half when Sanni was having trouble finding the rim. With Sanni struggling to a 1 for 7 shooting start in the first half against Xavier’s 6-5 freshman forward Amber Harris, Cole picked up the slack scoring 15 of WVU’s first 23 points and finishing the first half with 17.
After Jerri Taylor’s 3 pulled Xavier to within two, 16-14, with 7:41 remaining in the first half, the Mountaineers went on 15-2 run to take a 31-18 lead into the locker room.
A Sparkle Davis 3 from the corner gave the Mountaineers a 19-14 edge and four straight points from Cole put them ahead, 23-18.
LaQuita Owens drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2:53 left, and Sanni made her only basket of the first half on a pretty pick and roll play to give the Mountaineers a double-digit advantage, 28-18.
A Cole lay up with 43.9 seconds left put West Virginia ahead by 12, and Sanni cleaned things up with 1.7 seconds remaining with one of two from the free throw line.
At the break Xavier actually had more turnovers (nine) than it did made baskets (six).
"We usually play majority man, but at times we'll play some zone and they seemed to struggle against our zone so we stayed in that a lot more," Carey said.
In the second half, Sanni scored the first eight points for West Virginia to help the Mountaineers to a 17-point, 39-22 lead with 15:15 left.
"At halftme everyone told me what I was doing wrong," Sanni said. "I just came out and corrected that. Coach Carey told me to square up and just go at it and elevate my shot."
Xavier (26-8) was only able to trim West Virginia’s lead to 15 at the 7-minute media timeout and then to 11 at the 3-minute break.
Once it beat Xavier’s full-court pressure, West Virginia chose to hold onto the basketball and work the clock.
"We got a little rattled at the end, so we have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball," Carey said. "Xavier is a very good basketball team, and I give them a lot of credit."
Sanni scored 17 second-half points and finished with 20. Cole had a game-high 21 points to go with 12 rebounds.
"(Sanni) was terrific and the thing that she did, especially in the second half, was use her quickness to get angles to the basket," said Xavier coach Kevin McGuff. "If she's got to shoot right over Amber then I like what we're doing, but she really got the ball and put it on the floor and got it to the basket which gave her an angle to the basket where she could score."
Amber Harris finished with 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, but was just 6 for 14 from the field. Suntana Granderson added 13 but made just 4 of 18 shots.
Overall, the Musketeers were 15 of 50 shooting for 30 percent including 7 of 27 from 3-point range for 25.9 percent. Xavier had 19 turnovers, one fewer than WVU’s 20.
West Virginia transfer Joei Clyburn finished the game with just 4 points on 4-of-6 free throw shooting for the Musketeers.
"Our plan coming in, whether we were in man or zone, was to keep them in front of us and stop penetration and keep them off the offensive boards," Carey said. "In the second half they started to hit some 3s, and if they had done that in the beginning we might have gone out of it (zone defense)."
Ashley Powell had a solid all-around floor game for the Mountaineers, scoring 7 points, grabbing nine rebounds and handing out six assists.
"Ashley Powell was very aggressive tonight, and she played a great game," said Cole. "She looked to score and facilitated our offense very well tonight. Everybody played a large part in the game tonight."
West Virginia held a 36-29 advantage on the glass.
The Mountaineers were 24 of 55 shooting for 43.6 percent, but they made just 4 of 17 from 3-point distance for 23.5 percent.
West Virginia (21-10) advances to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1992 when the Mountaineers got to the “Sweet 16” with All-America guard Rosemary Kosiorek.
It is just the third NCAA tournament victory for the WVU women and the first with Carey; WVU dropped its only other NCAA tournament game under Carey at Ohio State in 2004.
The Mountaineers will face LSU on Monday night, March 19, for the right to advance to the Fresno (Calif.) Regional.
