Second Round Exit
March 24, 2008 11:39 PM | General
March 24, 2008
BOX SCORE
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Fourth-seeded Vanderbilt used a 16-5 run during the middle of the second half to break open a tie game and cruise to a 64-46 victory over fifth-seeded West Virginia Monday night in second round NCAA Tournament action at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. The Commodores move on the the Sweet 16.
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| West Virginia seniors LaQuita Owens, Meg Bulger and Chakhia Cole watch Vanderbilt celebrate its 18-point victory over the Mountaineers Monday night in an NCAA Tournament second round game in Albuquerque, N.M.
Brian Persinger photo |
"“First of all, all my seven seniors, I am very proud of them," said West Virginia coach Mike Carey. "They have done more for the West Virginia University basketball program than any set of seniors in the history of the program. I am not going to sit up here and talk negative. They have had a great career. We just didn’t get it done."
West Virginia (25-8) led 29-27 at halftime after Meg Bulger drilled a 3 with 1:16 left in the half. The first half was a game of runs with Vanderbilt jumping out to a 16-9 lead and then WVU responding with a 15-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 24-18 after a Bulger lay up with 5:24 to play.
The first four minutes of the second half were back-and-forth. Vanderbilt’s Jennifer Risper tied the game at 35 on a tough driving lay up with 16:05 to play. That boost in momentum set up the decisive run of the game that would see the Commodores score 16 of the contest’s next 21 points.
It started with Risper scoring again, this time on a running floater to beat the shot clock with 15:24 to play, and ended on a Christina Wirth 3 to give Vanderbilt a comfortable 51-40 lead at the 8:41 mark.
During the run West Virginia went cold, only managing a LaQuita Owens 3 and a Lateefah Joye lay up in nearly seven minutes of action. There was simply no answer for Wirth on this night as the Mesa, Ariz., native lit up the Mountaineers for 21 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the floor and 4 of 7 shooting from three-point distance. She also collected seven rebounds.
"We let (Christina) Wirth stand out there and shoot 3s wide open and she hit them. She was 4-for-7 and that got them going a little bit," Carey said. "Offensively, we didn’t reverse the ball. There wasn’t one timeout I didn’t say ‘We’re not reversing the ball. We’re not getting space. We’re not cutting.’ You can’t do that."
It was never a matter of effort for West Virginia, but simply an inability to connect on shots and rebound the basketball. The Mountaineers shot just 17 of 58 for the game (29.3 percent) and an even worse 7 of 30 (23 percent) in the second half against the Commodores 2-2-1 zone defense. The Mountaineers were outscored 37-17 in the second half.
Vanderbilt (25-8) outrebounded WVU 40-22 to make up for its 22 turnovers. Despite having 10 more turnovers than West Virginia (22-12), the Commodores did a better job capitalizing, getting 16 points off turnovers to the Mountaineers’ 12. Vanderbilt also had a decisive 20-2 edge in bench scoring.
Olayinka Sanni led West Virginia with 14 points while Bulger and Owens pitched in 13 and 10 respectively.
"We missed easy shots and then took bad shots on top of that and then didn’t get out and defend," Carey said. "You are not going to win a game against a team like Vanderbilt by playing that way.”
It was the second consecutive year West Virginia exited the NCAA Tournament in the second round.
