Women's Basketball: WVU Wins League Opener
January 02, 2010 05:00 PM | General
January 2, 2010
BOX SCORE
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| Sarah Miles |
JAMAICA, N.Y. – West Virginia University’s 19th-ranked women’s basketball team ran its win streak to 11 straight contests with a hard fought 54-50 victory at St. John’s Saturday afternoon at Carnesecca Arena.
With WVU up 53-50 with 17.7 seconds left, two St. John’s 3-point attempts didn’t connect and Sarah Miles hit a free throw with 2.2 seconds left to seal the victory for the Mountaineers.
WVU (13-1, 1-0) took a six point lead at 43-37 on a Bussie three-point play with 8:53 left in the game. Shenneika Smith then scored five straight for St. John’s (12-2, 0-1) to cut the Mountaineer lead to 43-42 with 8:12 remaining, forcing a quick WVU timeout. Two Eugeneia McPherson free throws gave St. John’s a brief lead at 44-43 but a Bussie jumper in the paint with 5:58 remaining gave WVU the lead for good.
Bussie finished the contest with a game-best 15 points with nine rebounds and a career-best six blocks. It marked the most blocks by a Mountaineer since Kate Bulger had six against St. John’s in the 2004 BIG EAST Tournament.
WVU’s aggressive defense forced 16 SJU turnovers and held the Red Storm to just 23.8% from the field (15-63). The contest saw six lead changes and three ties and WVU scored 20 points in the paint. SJU out-rebounded the Mountaineers 50-43, its first win of the season when being out-rebounded.
Vanessa House chipped in 11 points, nine in the second half, and Liz Repella added 10 points. Madina Ali had nine rebounds while Sarah Miles added eight assists in 39 minutes of play.
West Virginia’s 11-game win streak is the longest of the Mike Carey era and ties for the third-longest in school history with the 1975-76 and 1974-75 squads. The Mountaineers have also won five straight in the series and 11 of the last 12 meetings in now leading the all-time series by a 17-4 count. Carey is now 11-1 all-time against the Red Storm.
Sky Lindsay led St. John’s with 15 points and seven rebounds. Smith was the only other SJU player in double figures with 11 points.
WVU used an 11-4 run in the first eight minutes of the second half to take a 36-32 lead with 11:52 remaining in the game. House, who started the second half in place of Repella who had three fouls, tallied four points and Repella added a three-point play when she returned to the game to help WVU retake the lead.
The aggressive Mountaineer defense forced five quick St. John’s turnovers in the first eight minutes and limited SJU to just 2-12 shooting from the field to open the second stanza.
The first half saw three lead changes and two tied scores as the Red Storm used a 17-6 run during the half’s final 10 minutes to take a 28-25 halftime advantage by taking advantage of the Mountaineers being in foul trouble. St. John’s held a 23-19 rebounding advantage and forced 10 Mountaineer turnovers. However, WVU’s aggressive defense did limit the Red Storm to just 25.8% (8-31) from the field.
St. John’s took a 9-8 lead on a Sky Lindsay jumper but WVU responded with a 7-0 run which included a Repella 3-pointer to take a 15-8 lead. Two Campbell jumpers and two Bussie free throws helped WVU keep its largest lead of the first half at 19-11 with 9:56 remaining. From there, SJU made their run to take the halftime lead.
West Virginia returns home for the first of three straight BIG EAST games at the WVU Coliseum with a matchup against Backyard Brawl rival Pitt on Tuesday, Jan. 5, at 7 p.m. The contest will be televised nationally by CBS College.
