Sanni Dominates
January 16, 2008 10:08 PM | General
January 16, 2008
BOX SCORE | POST GAME QUOTES | PHOTO GALLERY
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| Olayinka Sanni |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Cross Marquette off the list of teams West Virginia has failed to beat in women’s basketball. The No. 14-rated Mountaineers took care of that Wednesday night with a tough, 68-63 win over the Golden Eagles at the WVU Coliseum.
The Golden Eagles had won a pair of games against West Virginia since joining the Big East, including a stinging 80-75 victory in Morgantown two years ago after the Mountaineers blew a 21-point first-half lead.
Marquette (9-7, 1-2) led this one 32-28 at halftime and had a 43-41 lead with 12:46 remaining before West Virginia used a 12-0 run over a span of four minutes to take a 53-43 lead.
“At halftime I told them that we just have to suck it up, these are the types of games that we have to win - especially at home,” said West Virginia coach Mike Carey. “I’m proud of them.”
LaQuita Owens put the Mountaineers ahead, 44-43, with a 3 from the corner and Liz Repella followed Owens’ 3 with a lay up. Olayinka Sanni added a pair of free throws to make it 49-43, Chakhia Cole responded with another lay up, and Sanni completed the run with two more from the foul line.
Marquette got it down to three twice, the latest with 18 seconds to go when Krystal Ellis was fouled by Ashley Powell on a 3-point shot attempt and Ellis made all three free throws.
A traveling call on West Virginia’s LaQuita Owens with 16 seconds left gave the Golden Eagles an opportunity to tie the game, but Ellis’ jumper inside the 3-point line was off the mark and Sanni grabbed the rebound. Sanni was fouled on the play and made both free throws, going 7 of 7 for the game.
Sanni finished with a team-high 21 points to go with a career high 16 rebounds. The senior’s 21-16 double-double was the best performance by a WVU post player since Yelena Leuchanka’s 20-point, 17-rebound game against Central Florida on Nov. 19, 2005.
Meg Bulger contributed 12 points, while Chakhia Cole and Owens scored 11 points each.
“West Virginia is a very experienced team who is playing with all of their seniors,” said Marquette coach Terri Mitchell. “They know what it is so when they got down they didn’t panic and they chipped away.”
Ellis led Marquette with a game-high 23 points. Paige Fiedorowicz came off the bench to score 13.
“I thought we did a good job on Ellis except when we were in the zone because she can shoot it deep,” Carey said. “In the zone we just didn’t go out far enough on her.”
Marquette finished the game shooting 35.7 percent and committed 18 turnovers.
“I give Marquette credit they came in and battled,” Carey said. “They battled Rutgers and lost to them by four and they battled us here. They are a very good basketball team and they play extremely hard.”
The Mountaineers have won 19 of their last 20 at home and nine straight at home in Big East play dating back to last season.
West Virginia boosts its record to 13-3, 3-1 and returns to the road on Saturday to face St. John’s in an afternoon Big East contest. The Red Storm are 10-6, 1-2, most recently losing to DePaul 91-80 in overtime on Tuesday night.
