WVU Battles In-State Rival
January 13, 2009 05:21 PM | General
January 13, 2009
GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team travels to Charleston, W.Va., to take on in-state rival Marshall in the annual Capital Classic on Wednesday evening at the Charleston Civic Center. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
The Mountaineers (10-5, 0-3 Big East) are currently on a three-game slide as they take a break from conference play to battle the Thundering Herd (9-6, 2-1 C-USA). WVU is coming off an 85-55 defeat to top-ranked Connecticut, which was unfathomably one of the Huskies’ closer margins of victory this season.
Following their first practice after falling to UConn, the Mountaineers worked rigorously to correct their mistakes and give a full effort in executing their game plan against Marshall.
“They needed to come out hard yesterday,” Coach Mike Carey said. “We tried to correct some things and correct the way things were going to be done offensively that’ll help us become a better team. We’ll see what happens.”
Sophomore guard Sarah Miles was one of the bright spots for WVU in its last game. The San Antonio, Texas, resident was effective in penetrating to the rim and breaking down her opponents in one-on-one situations. Miles finished with 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting against UConn’s vaunted defense.
Shouldering the scoring load once again were guards Liz Repella and Takisha Granberry. Repella notched 15 points, going 3-of-8 from outside, while Granberry led the Mountaineers with 17 points while making 5-of-9 three-point attempts.
However, if there is one correction to be made by Carey, he hopes that it will be for his team to make the all-important hustle plays that can sway the momentum of a game and contribute to a victory.
“You can’t let your offense dictate your defense,” Carey said. “I think we were a little frustrated that we weren’t making shots and we let that show on the defensive end.
“I was most disappointed when Connecticut was up by 30 and they had a couple loose balls at the corner and at the top of the key, and they out-hustled us to those balls. That’s not like us. I don’t care if we are up 30 or down 30, I expect us to fight for those loose balls.”
The Mountaineers will be in for a fight when they take on their in-state rivals. The Thundering Herd is 2-1 in its conference, winning its last two contests against defending Conference USA champion Southern Methodist (70-63) and Tulsa (51-37).
Marshall has three double-figure scorers, led by sophomore forward Tynikki Crook’s 12.5 points per game. Junior guard Chantelle Handy, who hails from Durham, England, follows with 10.3 points per game while junior guard/forward Alyssa Hammond rounds out the double-figure scoring trio with 10.1 points per game.
The Thundering Herd has played one other Big East opponent this season, falling to Seton Hall, 73-52. WVU hopes for a similar performance that the Pirates put forward in order to end their three-game slide.
“I told the girls yesterday, ‘I don’t like to lose,’ Carey said. “We’ve lost three in a row and instead of worrying about what we need to do to win they’re worrying about what kind of practice we’re going to have. That’s the wrong mindset for us right now. We need to know what we need to do to improve in some games down the stretch. We’re going to continue to practice hard and try to get better. If we do that we’ll have an opportunity to win some games.”
Part of that game plan is to continue trying to attack the rim. Although Repella and Granberry have seen some consistency in their outside shots, Carey prefers to see his squad play more aggressively and look for opportunities inside.
“We’ve been trying to do that all year,” Carey said of having his team play more aggressively on offense. “We have some good 3-point shooters in Takisha Granberry and Liz Repella. But when we are not hitting those, that’s when we need to make the adjustments offensively and we have not been doing of good job of that. There is no excuse for defense either. We need to get refocused offensively and defensively.”
WVU leads the all-time series against Marshall, winning 31 of the 47 contests between the two Mountain State squads. WVU has won the last three contests, including last year’s 58-51 victory.
The game will be televised by West Virginia PBS, with men’s basketball against the Thundering Herd following at 8 p.m.
