Women's Basketball: WVU to Face New Mexico
March 22, 2008 10:10 AM | General
March 22, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The West Virginia University women head into the Pit tonight to face New Mexico in an NCAA Tournament first round game in Albuquerque, N.M. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
West Virginia (24-7) last played 12 days ago in the Big East semifinals against Louisville where it dropped a 67-60 decision to the Cardinals. In that game the Mountaineer got behind big early before making a furious rally. WVU coach Mike Carey sees a lot of similarities between Louisville and New Mexico.
“They have key players that they go tom,” Carey said. “They run a lot of high low type sets, they pull their five out sometimes looking to go to their four; they attack and spread you out - sometimes five out, even though they don’t have the big post players that Louisville had. I see a lot of similarities and they hit the boards hard and attack of the dribble.”
New Mexico (20-12) has been on a roll of late, winning its last six games including the Mountain West title game by a score of 62-59 over San Diego State. The Lobos are making their seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
New Mexico traditionally draws great crowds and was able to land a home site despite coming into the tournament as a 12 seed.
“They deserve to have it here, they get great crowds here, they’ve had great success here, they have been in the NCAA several years in a row, I don’t blame them,” Carey said. “I would put a bid in every year also if I had the success that they have had.
“It’s nothing against New Mexico I just felt placing third in the Big East that wouldn’t occur, but it did, no excuses, they deserve what they got, and we deserve we got,” Carey said. “We struggled at the end of the year, dropped us a couple seeds, and that’s what happened.”
New Mexico’s key player is 6-foot-1-inch forward Dionne Marsh who averages 15.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Marsh is shooting 49.4 percent from the floor and she scored 19 points in New Mexico’s 65-41 MWC semifinal game against Colorado State.
“I think their post players are physical and athletic. They have some shooters and some players that go in and bang you in the post,” Carey said.
The Mountaineers are making back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history. It is the third NCAA appearance for Carey’s program since 2004.
“We feel we had a great season, we struggled a little bit at the end, but I feel we are going to have a great tournament,” Carey said. “We are looking forward to playing New Mexico.”
Senior Olayinka Sanni is one of four Mountaineer players averaging double figures at 16.5 points per game. Sanni is shooting 59.7 percent from the floor and is grabbing 7.1 rebounds per game.
Senior guard LaQuita Owens averages 13.7 points per game while senior Meg Bulger is averaging 12.8 points to go with a team-best 79 3-point baskets.
“I don’t think our players are going to come out in aw of a large crowd, a lot of people against them and that kind of stuff,” Carey said. “The question was asked, what do we need to do early? Well we need to come out and play hard early and take control of the game.”
Tip off is set for 8:30 pm.
