Taming the Panthers
February 13, 2008 08:57 PM | General
February 13, 2008
BOX SCORE | COACHES' QUOTES |PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 11 West Virginia women’s basketball team did what so many Mountaineer squads have failed to do recently, using an impressive defensive display to defeat No. 18 Pitt 56-35 in front of 2,606 fans Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.
Olayinka Sanni led all scorers with 17 points, making 8 of 16 shots from the floor while totally dominating her counterpart Marcedes Walker, who is continuing to recover from an ankle injury. More impressive than the scoring total was Sanni’s well-rounded stat sheet that included seven rebounds, four blocks, three steals, a beautiful assist to a cutting Ashley Powell and no turnovers in 34 minutes of action.
Meg Bulger came off the bench to score 14 points in just her second game back since tweaking her knee against Marshall.
“Sanni was ready to play, we challenged her this week. I also thought Ashley Powell played well and I think that Meg Bulger played well coming off the bench and hit some big shots for us,” West Virginia Coach Mike Carey said. “Meg is a competitor, when she is on the floor she is not worrying about her knee.”
Despite the 21-point margin it was anything but easy early on. In the first 10 minutes both teams shot the ball as if the baskets were moving, combining to miss 23 of the first 25 shots attempted.
West Virginia (20-3, 9-1) had made just one field goal and led 6-2 following two Chakhia Cole free throws with 13:06 left in the first half. The Mountaineers broke out of their shooting slump however, mounting a 16-2 run to give the Old Gold and Blue a 20-4 lead with 4:53 to go in the first half.
“Our girls played extremely hard, I just think that we were up too much offensively with the quick shots and missed lay-ups,” Carey said. “Normally we don’t miss those shots, but I would rather them play well on defense. Defense will win the games and then we will eventually start hitting shots offensively.”
Pitt on the other hand, continued to come up empty from all angles, as West Virginia’s tight defense forced the Panthers into a barrage of turnovers and missed shots. Pitt missed 23 of its first 25 shots before mounting a relative offensive explosion over the last four minutes, scoring seven points to cut the deficit to just 25-13 at halftime.
The Panthers made just 4 of 28 shots in the first half for 14.3 percent. Even worse, the visitors had a stunning zero assists against 13 turnovers at intermission. It was the lowest point total in a half for Pitt since they scored 14 in a 2003 game against Xavier.
West Virginia didn’t take full advantage of the Panther miscues in the half, shooting just 28 percent itself. The Mountaineers left no doubt in the second half however, opening the period on a 16-2 run to take their largest lead of the game at 41-15 with 13:29 to play.
It was just one of those nights for Pitt, who failed to come up with any answers despite playing a myriad of players in search of a spark. The Panthers came into the game averaging nearly 75 points per outing but shot just 20.3 percent, which marks the second lowest shooting percentage West Virginia has held an opponent to so far this season.
The 35 points allowed by WVU tonight ties the season mark set earlier this season against Georgetown for fewest points allowed to a Big East opponent since the Mountaineers entered the league in 1996
Walker and Shavonte Zellous, two bona fide Big East Player of the Year candidates, combined to score just eight points on 2 of 14 shooting from the floor. The Mountaineers forced 20 Pitt turnovers, scoring 19 points off of them.
“Defensively we did a great job, we took them out of their sets and we did a great job at fronting (Marcedes) Walker,” Carey said. “Anytime you can win by 20 over a ranked team like Pitt, who is a good basketball team that just struggled offensively, we are happy with that win.”
West Virginia has now won nine in a row, including 16 straight at home and 12 straight at home in Big East play. The Mountaineers have also won 12 of their last 13 home games against Pitt.
The Mountaineers have won at least 20 games in four of the last five years. This is the fastest the team has gotten to 20 wins by date and the second fastest to 20 wins in terms of games played.
“We have won 20 games in four out of the last five years, and I think that is great for our program. That is a goal we always shoot for,” Carey said. “We have six games left, three here and three on the road, we need to finish strong. We can’t live on 20 wins.”
Pitt (18-6, 8-3) was led by Ashleigh Braxton with 13 points.
West Virginia concludes its two-game home stand on Saturday when DePaul invades the Coliseum for a 2 p.m. tilt. The game is Think Pink and Pack the House day and all fans are encouraged to wear pink to help increase breast cancer awareness.
