Smooth Sailing
March 09, 2008 11:00 PM | General
March 9, 2008
BOX SCORE | MSN POSTGAME AUDIO
HARTFORD, Conn. – No. 3 seed West Virginia jumped out to a 23-6 lead in the first 10 minutes and never looked back, defeating No. 11 seed South Florida 64-42 in Big East Women’s Championship quarterfinal action Sunday night at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
“I thought that the first few minutes of the game set the pace for us," said West Virginia coach Mike Carey. "We came out and you could tell that South Florida had a tough game yesterday."
 |
||
| West Virginia's Olayinka Sanni scores two of her game-high 20 points in the Mountaineers' 64-42 Big East Tournament victory over USF Sunday night in Hartford, Conn.
AP photo |
Carey has always said that when WVU plays well the offense feeds off the defense. That was never more evident than on Sunday night when the Mountaineers used an extended 2-3 zone to force the Bulls into 10 first half turnovers and 20 percent shooting from the floor (6 of 30). WVU also had a 21-12 rebounding advantage in the first half.
While the West Virginia defense was busy frustrating USF at one end, the offense was scoring efficiently at the other, making 15 of 31 first half shots, good for 48 percent, including 4 of 10 from 3-point range.
After Shantia Grace scored two to cut the deficit to 30-15 with less than five minutes to go in the period, the Mountaineers responded with a 9-0 run to take a comfortable 39-15 halftime advantage. LaQuita Owens and Olayinka Sanni combined for 23 first-half points.
"I think we just came out hungry because the last game we played we did not up to our potential," said Chakhia Cole. "We decided that we need to go out and win."
The second half was more of the same for the first 10 minutes as West Virginia built its largest lead of the game on a Liz Repella steal and lay up to put the Gold and Blue up 56-24 with 9:52 to go. Carey emptied his bench over the last 10 minutes, choosing to rest his starters for tomorrow night’s semifinal game against Louisville. No WVU player got more than 29 minutes of action (Cole).
"Overall I thought that we came out and did what we were supposed to do,” Carey said.
For the game, the Mountaineers shot 47 percent from the field (25 of 53) while holding the Bulls to just over 25 percent (15 of 59). South Florida made just 2 of its 23 3-point attempts.
"We have to give them credit, they had a tough game and they won it in overtime," Carey said of USF. "They had a short bench and they came out with our quickness and to our credit we attacked them and did a good job defensively."
Sanni led West Virginia (24-6) with 20 points on 9 of 14 shooting while Owens pitched in 14. All 14 players that dressed for the Mountaineers got in the game.
Shantia Grace scored 13 to lead South Florida (17-16).
West Virginia will now face No. 7 seed Louisville in the second semifinal game tomorrow night at 8 p.m. The Cardinals upset No. 2 seed Rutgers 57-56 last night to advance to the semifinals.
No. 1 seed Connecticut will play No. 5 seed Pitt in the first semifinal tomorrow night at 6 p.m.
