WVU Battles Blue Demons
January 30, 2009 05:46 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
January 30, 2009
GAME NOTES
 |
||
| Coach Mike Carey shows support for breast cancer awareness in last year's contest against DePaul.
Photo courtesy of Dale Sparks |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team tries to ride its first Big East victory from last Saturday when it battles No. 25 DePaul on the road on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 8 p.m ET/7 p.m. CT in Chicago, Ill.
After defeating St. John’s, 63-61, in their last contest, the Mountaineers (12-7, 1-5) look to ride their momentum against a difficult opponent in the nationally-ranked Blue Demons. WVU’s one-week layoff was its biggest since having an eight-day stretch between victories over Santa Clara (Dec. 22) and Longwood (Dec. 30).
“I think it was big,” Coach Carey said of the time lapse. “Especially because we could go back to fundamentals and get back to some of the other things that we’re not doing well. Come to find out, it was really big to have this week off because we had people with the flu and tendinitis, so it was good to get people some rest. We cut back practice a little bit and went hard when we were in the gym.”
Bothered by tendinitis in her knee, senior guard Takisha Granberry enters the contest leading WVU with 15.9 points per game. The Charlotte, N.C., native went 5-of-13, including 2-of-5 on 3-pointers, in WVU’s last game and has jumpstarted the squad with six 20-plus point efforts this season.
Sophomore Liz Repella also notched 13 points last game, and added a team-high 12 rebounds. The Steubenville, Ohio, resident averages 15.5 points and a team-best 8.1 boards from the guard position as she is looked at as one of WVU’s more potent scorers.
Senior point guard Ashley Powell joins Repella as the only current WVU players who saw action in last year’s 81-80 home loss to DePaul in front of a record crowd of 8,307 on “Think Pink” day. The Detroit, Mich., native played 37 minutes and posted a team-best six assists in last year’s contest. Powell sits at fourth all-time in school history with 484 career assists.
WVU enters Saturday’s game tied for fifth in the Big East in scoring defense, holding opponents to 55.6 points per game. In conference action, however, the Mountaineers have only been able to hold one opponent underneath their average (Villanova, 54), and will need to plug away from start to finish on the defensive end against a talented DePaul squad.
“We need to play 40 minutes,” Carey said. “We have to be able to sustain defensively and offensively. Our window of margin is very small. We can’t go five or six minutes and not score, or get in major foul trouble or rest a lot of people. We’re just going to have to play a total of 40 minutes so we can have an opportunity to win this game.”
Deirdre Naughton leads the Blue Demons with 16.8 points per game, and a notched a game-high 24 points in last year’s win over WVU. Naughton, who has already attempted 305 field goals this season, is shooting 38 percent from the floor but has made 84-of-108 free throw attempts. Natasha Williams is second on the squad with 15 points per game and leads DePaul in rebounding at 6.6 boards per contest. Freshman Keisha Hampton has also chipped in with nearly 11 points per contest.
“They’re good. They are strong in the paint and their post players are playing very well,” Carey said. “They have a good shooter in Naughton and Hampton is a good freshman, and she’s a 3-4 type player who is very athletic and can score off the dribble and shoot.
“They are a very good basketball team and are ranked in the Top 25 right now. They are coming off a couple good wins and are well-coached, and they do some things that can create some problems for us.”
DePaul has won three straight, including a 60-58 home win against Rutgers. The Blue Demons have also defeated Pitt (69-62), Providence (87-64) and St. John’s (59-58) within the Big East.
Now that WVU has earned its first conference victory this season, Carey admits that his squad has a sense of relief as it enters another crucial stretch of Big East games. The Mountaineers are hoping to begin a turnaround against the formidable Blue Demons.
“It helps us,” Carey said of nabbing the first Big East win. “I felt we gave away a couple other wins in the Big East. We were very fortunate against St. John’s being up 20 and winning by two. Luckily we made our foul shots down the stretch. We just have to be consistent for 40 minutes and emphasize that.”
Just like last year’s contest that promoted Breast Cancer Awareness as part of the “Think Pink” week, DePaul will return the favor on Saturday night. The Blue Demons will host their Pink Zone™ game against WVU, with all proceeds benefitting the Kay Yow/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Cancer Fund.
Yow, a standout women’s basketball figure and coach who amassed 737 victories at NC State, lost her life to breast cancer on Jan. 24 at the age of 66. Pink Zone™ is the WBCA global initiative and unified effort from the nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.
Both teams will show their support for the worthy initiative, as players and coaches will wear pink to help raise awareness. While Saturday’s game begins the quest to raise breast cancer awareness across the women’s basketball circuit, Pink Zone™ will be utilized for games played from Feb. 13-22.
