West Virginia Faces No. 4 Irish
January 23, 2010 06:05 PM | General
January 23, 2010
WEST VIRGINIA GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 11th-ranked West Virginia University women’s basketball team faces one of its stiffest tests of the season when it battles No. 4 Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at the Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Ind. The game will air on ESPNU.
Perhaps the only other comparable matchup West Virginia has faced all season was against then-No. 3 Ohio State on Nov. 19 in Columbus, Ohio. The Mountaineers (18-1, 5-0) fell 92-69 to the Buckeyes in a measuring-stick affair that was just three games into the season.
 |
|
| Sarah Miles will try to help contain Notre Dame's talented trio in the back court on Sunday.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
All WVU has done since is reel off 16 consecutive wins, earning victories over Iowa, Duquesne, St. John’s, DePaul and twice defeating rival Pitt during its undefeated stretch. The Mountaineers have been successful because of their defense, tying for the third-best scoring defense at 49.5 points per game. West Virginia continues to give the opposition difficult looks from the field, holding opponents to 34.1 percent shooting.
“I think it will be a great atmosphere,” WVU coach Mike Carey said of Sunday’s game. “They’ll build this game up in front of a great crowd. They need this win; we have no losses in the Big East and they have one in Connecticut. I think it will be a real battle.”
West Virginia has been nearly as effective on the defensive end in conference play, allowing opponents just 52.2 points per game. In a league known for the size and strength of its post players, WVU is outrebounding its Big East foes by nearly four boards per game.
“A lot is on the line for both teams,” Carey added. “It will be a tough test. I’ll be interested to see how we react and come out to start the game. We’re not as deep as they are and need to stay out of foul trouble and be consistent on both ends.”
One aspect where West Virginia has thrived all season is in points off turnovers. Led by junior guard Sarah Miles and her 3.1 steals per game, WVU is forcing 20.4 turnovers per game to make for easier buckets with one or two-man advantages.
Led by perhaps the nation’s top freshman in guard Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame is expected to be less careless with the ball than some of WVU’s past opponents. Diggins, a South Bend native, was one of the country’s top recruits one year ago and now leads the Fighting Irish (16-1, 3-1) with 13.4 points per game on nearly 45 percent shooting. She also shoots 36.5 percent from 3-point range.
“She can score and has good height. She doesn’t play like a freshman at the point,” Carey said of Diggins. “She’s taken some pressure off her teammates by running the team. She’s really added a lot to that team.”
The hardest task for WVU will be to contain Notre Dame’s star-studded back court. Aside from Diggins, guards Ashley Barlow (11.8 points) and Lindsay Schrader (11.2 points) round out the Irish’s double-figure scoring. The dangerous trio accounts for nearly half of Notre Dame’s 80-point scoring average.
To gauge how well the Fighting Irish play offensively, it scored 81 points against a Villanova team that held West Virginia to just 45. In Notre Dame’s contest against the Wildcats, the Fighting Irish forced an eye-opening 34 turnovers and shot 52.5 percent against an extremely patient Villanova squad that is among the nation’s best defensively.
“They’re eight or nine deep. They have all their starters back and a couple players coming back from injury last year,” Carey mentioned. “We’re going to have to play very well for 40 minutes. They press a lot, put a lot of pressure and run that high post where they look for back doors and hand-balls and that type of stuff. They have some shooters and they probably have the freshman of the year.”
Notre Dame has defeated four nationally ranked teams in Michigan State, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and San Diego State, but recently lost to top-ranked Connecticut last Saturday night. As a team, the Irish has a 1.07 assist to turnover ratio, although Diggins is averaging about three turnovers per game.
“It’s hard to take a lot off that,” Carey said of Notre Dame’s performance against UConn. “In the second half, Notre Dame got back into the game a little bit by offensive rebounding and being aggressive. I think we’re going to have to be very aggressive and the boards will be a big part of the game. We have to stay out of foul trouble and hit those open shots that sometimes we hit and sometimes we don’t.
WVU guard Liz Repella scored 13 points in last year’s meeting, and averages a team-best 14.2 points per game. Junior guard/forward Korinne Campbell scored 14 points against Marshall on Wednesday evening and leads the team with 7.8 rebounds per game.
In its last two games, West Virginia scored its conference-high point total against Pitt (69) and produced 74 points against Marshall. Its recent offensive spike has been due in large part to redshirt junior Vanessa House, who has come off the bench to post totals of 12 and 16 points, respectively.
Sunday’s contest will be the second-ever meeting between Notre Dame and WVU when both teams are ranked. The last took place in Morgantown in 2008, with WVU winning 56-50. The Mountaineers fell in last year’s contest at Notre Dame, 72-66.
