West Virginia 69, Syracuse 68
February 28, 2009 04:37 PM | General
February 28, 2009
| Syracuse 68, West Virginia 69 WVU Coliseum Morgantown, W.Va. |
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| FG Made-Att | 28-70 | 26-62 | ||||||||||||
| FG Percentage | 40.0% | 41.9% | ||||||||||||
| 3P Made-Att | 6-18 | 9-26 | ||||||||||||
| 3P Percentage | 33.3% | 34.6% | ||||||||||||
| FT Made-Att | 6-9 | 8-17 | ||||||||||||
| FT Percentage | 66.7% | 47.1% | ||||||||||||
| Rebounds | 44 | 40 | ||||||||||||
| Turnovers | 11 | 10 | ||||||||||||
| Top WVU Players | ||||||||||||||
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – On “Senior Day,” the West Virginia University women’s basketball team provided an entertaining afternoon for the Mountaineer faithful. Ashley Powell, one of only two seniors on the squad, scored 16 points and dished out 10 assists for her first career double-double in her last regular-season game at the WVU Coliseum to lead West Virginia to a 69-68 win over visiting BIG EAST foe Syracuse.
"The girls showed a lot of heart by coming back," Coach Mike Carey said. "We were down by 12 and I felt my eyes hurt and my heart flutter and that is why coaches live a long time."
Powell also had seven rebounds, while fellow senior Takisha Granberry scored 17 points on 4-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc, including some key shots in pivotal situations to help the Mountaineers (16-12, 5-10 BIG EAST) to the victory.
"All the credit goes to the players," Carey said. "It’s the first time we’ve had four people in double figures all year and I thought that Ashley Powell showed a lot of leadership with 16 points and 10 assists, and only three turnovers."
The win however did not come without excitement as Syracuse’s Nicole Michael missed a buzzer-beating 3-point shot for the win.
"That last second shot looked right now and I thought, ‘give us a break’," Carey said. "We got the one break this year and she missed it."
A crowd of 3,257 fans attended the game; it was the seventh largest crowd to see a WVU women's basketball game ever at the Coliseum.
"What a difference a crowd makes," Carey added. "I’ll tell you what – we couldn’t have come back from 12 without the crowd. That crowd was fantastic."
The Orange (15-13, 4-11) built off of a first-half lead and eventually jumped ahead by 12, its largest lead of the game, with a 3-pointer by Michael at 15:27 to make the score 49-37.
West Virginia’s Granberry answered Michael with a 3-pointer to make the score 49-40 at the 15:03 mark. After a media timeout, Granberry was again able to hit from behind the arc to cut the Syracuse lead to six.
With 12:45 left, Powell cut it to 51-47 with a jumper, while junior Alex Sanabria made the first of two free throws to make it 51-48. Sanabria missed her second, but West Virginia’s Natalie Burton grabbed a big offensive board and put it right back to cut the deficit to one at 51-50.
"Natalie Burton had a double-double," Carey said. "At the beginning of the year not one person in this room, including me, would think that she would have a double-double. She continues to improve."
The Mountaineers eventually tied the game at 53 apiece with 9:41 left on a Granberry made jump shot and went back and forth with the Orange after that for almost seven minutes until Liz Repella was fouled and made both of her free-throws to put the Mountaineers up for the first time in the second half, 62-61, with 2:50 remaining in the game.
Repella then got her fifth and final foul when she fouled Syracuse’s Chandrea Jones, who made both of her free-throws to give Syracuse the 63-62 lead.
Granberry then hit her fourth 3-pointer of the day at 1:39 to put the Mountaineers ahead again 65-63. However, the Orange’s Erica Morrow hit a 3-pointer the next trip down the floor to put Syracuse up one, 66-65.
With 59 seconds left, sophomore Sarah Miles drove down the floor and hit a key layup to continue swing the game back in WVU’s favor, 67-66. As the Orange had done all day, they came back with a Jones made layup at the 42 second mark to bring the score 68-67, Syracuse.
With 21 seconds left Granberry hit another clutch shot to make it 69-68 and that was all West Virginia needed after Burton grabbed a key defensive rebound.
At halftime, the Mountaineers saw themselves down by five, 37-32.
Powell started the scoring for the Mountaineers at the 19:28 mark of the first-half with a lay-up to put West Virginia up 2-0. The game continued to go back and forth for the majority of the half. Sanabria drilled two 3-pointers at the 10:12 and 8:40 marks to tie the game at 15 and 18, respectively.
Syracuse built a first-half lead of seven on a jumper from Jones, however WVU battled back with a 3-pointer from Granberry at 3:22 and Repella hit a jumper with 2:51 remaining to cut the deficit to two.
For Syracuse, Jones ended up with a game-high 27 points on 12-of-21 shooting, while Michael finished the game with 22 points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds as well.
Burton finished the game with her first career double-double and the second game where she scored in double digits. The Australian native scored 10 points, while bringing down 10 rebounds.
Miles also had a double-digit day with 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
