Double Trouble
January 19, 2008 05:12 PM | General
January 19, 2008
BOX SCORE
JAMAICA, N.Y. – West Virginia coach Mike Carey had a simple message for senior center Olayinka Sanni: rebound the basketball. Sanni grabbed a total of 11 rebounds during the Mountaineers’ recent two-game stretch against Connecticut and Notre Dame and Carey wanted his best inside player to get more aggressive on the glass.
The result of Carey's little talk with Sanni was a 21-point, 16-rebound performance in a 68-63 victory against Marquette on Wednesday night and a 22-point, 15-rebound effort this afternoon against St. John’s at Carnesecca Arena.
Sanni's impressive board work helped West Virginia come away with a 68-44 victory over the Red Storm, running its record to 14-3, 4-1, and staying on pace with the Connecticut, Rutgers and Pitt near the top of the Big East standings.
“I came into this game with the focus of I need to rebound more because the past couple of games before that we weren’t rebounding well as a team,” Sanni said. “As a five it’s my job to go get the ball and take the initiative to actually go ahead and rebound it. If I can’t score I will rebound it and that will help us tremendously with second chances.”
What has happened is by crashing the boards Sanni is actually creating more offensive opportunities for herself. A good number of Sanni’s 43 points scored in West Virginia’s last two victories have come simply by her hustle around the basket.
“I think that’s been one of the keys to my game, just coming in and being active,” Sanni said. “That means everything else will fall into place.”
St. John’s, using a four-guard lineup, had no one once close to being capable of guarding Sanni in the paint on Saturday.
“They double down a lot but just playing teams that don’t have a true post gives me a little bit more of an advantage,” Sanni said.
West Virginia’s defense really performed well in the second half, too, holding the Red Storm to just six second-half field goals. That gave the Mountaineers an opportunity to expand on their three-point halftime lead. St. John’s finished the game shooting 16 of 53 for 30.2 percent, including just 1 of 12 from 3-point range for 8.3 percent. The Red Storm also committed 21 turnovers.
Two of West Virginia’s four Big East wins have already come on the road. WVU opened conference play with a 79-73 victory at South Florida on Jan. 5.
“Sometimes it’s harder to win on the road because they have home court advantage. I think we’re kind of used to it because we started off this season on the road and it’s not new to us,” Sanni said. “We just have to encourage ourselves and give all that we have when we come into these places. Mentally we try to prepare ourselves for getting ready for games like this.”
Sanni admits that right now she’s probably playing the best stretch of basketball of her career.
“When we get our scouting reports I pay attention to them and just knowing when I rebound and am active on the boards that the outcome of the game is better,” she said. “I try to tell myself just rebound the ball and everything else will fall in place. One of my main goals before the season started was to get more rebounds and all of the sudden now I have got the rhythm of that – go to the basket and go forward and rebound it.”
West Virginia also got 15 points from LaQuita Owens and 11 each from Meg Bulger and Chakhia Cole. The Mountaineers made 26 of 54 for 48.1 percent and had a 40-35 edge on the glass.
WVU has one remaining non-conference game against Marshall in Charleston on Wednesday night before having a pair of Big East games coming up at the Coliseum against Georgetown and Rutgers to finish out the month of January.
“There aren’t any easy games from here on out,” Sanni said. “We try and prepare ourselves and we have to mentally get ready for the next game.”
St. John’s drops to 10-7, 1-3.
