Women's Basketball: WVU Looks to Rebound
March 07, 2008 04:06 PM | General
March 7, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 14 West Virginia women’s basketball team looks to get back on the winning track when it travels to the 2008 Big East Women’s Basketball Championship at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
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| West Virginia's Kelly Smith, right, is pressured by Syracuse's Nicole Michael, left, and Chandrea Jones during the first half of women's college basketball in Syracuse, N.Y., Monday, March 3, 2008..
AP photo |
The Mountaineers received a bye as the No. 3 seed and will open tournament play in the quarterfinals on Sunday night at 8 p.m. against the winner of Saturday evening’s opening round matchup between sixth-seeded Syracuse and 11th-seeded South Florida.
West Virginia (23-6, 12-4) heads to the XL Center looking to get on a roll heading into NCAA Tournament play. Since winning 11 of 12 from Jan. 9 to Feb. 23, the Mountaineers have dropped two of three including Monday night’s 73-51 defeat at Syracuse (22-7, 10-6).
“I don’t really care who we play,” West Virginia Head Coach Mike Carey said. “If we play Syracuse again that’s great. I think we need to play them again but South Florida is also playing well so it wouldn’t surprise me to see them. The main thing is we’ve got to worry about us and get our edge back.”
Erica Morrow and Chandrea Jones scored 25 and 22 points respectively on Monday night to lead Syracuse to the upset victory over the Mountaineers. The Orange defense forced West Virginia into 25 turnovers and converted on 25 of 29 free throws on the evening. If Syracuse handles USF, they will be faced with the task of defeating a good West Virginia team twice in one week.
While WVU would cherish another shot at Syracuse, an upset by South Florida (15-14, 5-11) would provide a stiff challenge as well. After being left for dead in the race to finish in the top 12 and qualify for the Big East Tournament, USF finished in a four-way tie for 12th after pulling off two stunning upsets in two days to close the conference season, beating Pitt, 65-64 Saturday night in Tampa and then winning at Marquette, 61-56 on Monday night.
“Their backs are against the wall. They are playing with more intensity and executing better and playing better defense,” Carey said. “When you do that good things are going to happen. I don’t know if they are satisfied with just being there but I would expect they would play very well.”
The Mountaineers had anything but an easy time in holding off the Bulls 79-73 in the Big East opener for both teams at the Sun Dome back on Jan. 5. Sparkle Davis’ career-high 22 points on 8 of 11 shooting coupled with Olayinka Sanni’s 23 points powered the Mountaineers past the Bulls. Guard Shantia Grace currently paces USF in scoring with an 18.3 points-per-game average.
Seventh-seeded Louisville (21-8, 10-6) faces 10th-seeded St. John’s (16-13, 7-9) for the right to face No. 2 seed Rutgers (24-5, 14-2) in the quarterfinal round. Assuming the seeds hold up, West Virginia could face the Scarlet Knights in the semifinals in a rematch of the Mountaineers’ 63-54 upset on Jan. 29 in Morgantown.
In that contest LaQuita Owens scored 20 of her 23 points in the second half to rally WVU from a 10-point deficit to defeat then No. 4 Rutgers - the highest ranked team the Mountaineers have ever beaten. Epiphannyy Prince currently leads a balanced Rutgers team scoring 13.8 points per game. Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson pitch in 12.3 and 10.4 points respectively.
In the other half of the bracket, No. 5 seed Pitt (20-9, 10-6) plays No. 12 seed Villanova (15-14, 5-11) for the chance to play No. 4 seed Notre Dame (23-7, 11-5) in the semifinals. Marquette (16-13, 8-8) and DePaul (19-10, 8-8) play in the 8-9 game for the right to take on No. 1 Connecticut (29-1, 15-1) on Sunday.
Heading into the tournament, Olayinka Sanni leads four Mountaineers in double-figures scoring a team-best 15.5 and 7.3 rebounds per game. Meg Bulger and LaQuita Owens pitch in 13.5 and 13.4 respectively. Chakhia Cole averages 10.2 points and a team-best 53 steals on the year.
“We’ve got to get our emotions and our intensity back. When we play well our defense is going and that makes our offense go,” Carey said. “That’s what we have been focusing on the last two days and that’s what we need to be successful this weekend.”
