WVU Travels to USF
February 19, 2010 02:10 PM | General
February 19, 2010
WEST VIRGINIA GAMES NOTES | USF GAME NOTES
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| Liz Repella |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If No. 9 West Virginia wants to have a strong finish to regular season it is going to have to win on the road. That starts Saturday with a later afternoon matchup against 14-11 USF in a Pink Zone game at the USF Sun Dome.
Three of the Mountaineers’ four remaining regular season games are away from the WVU Coliseum.
“It’s always nicer to play at home than it is on the road,” said West Virginia coach Mike Carey. “It’s four tough games. South Florida is a good team. St. John’s went to Cincinnati and got beat. We come back and play Marquette, which beat Georgetown. And then we have to go Syracuse to finish out the season. That’s a tough four games going down the stretch.”
WVU is presently in a three-way tie with Notre Dame and Georgetown for second place in the Big East standings behind No. 1-ranked Connecticut. Notre Dame and Georgetown play on Saturday in Washington, D.C., so there will be movement regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s WVU-USF game in Tampa.
USF lost 54-50 at 25th-ranked Georgetown Wednesday night in a game that saw three Bulls players score 49 of the team’s 50 points.
Senior guard Allyson Speed stepped into the starting lineup and scored a season-high 20 points – nearly 18 more than her season’s average.
“She hit a bunch of 3s,” said Carey. “Georgetown plays a lot of zone so she got a lot of good looks at the 3 and she hit them. I’m sure she will have confidence going into our game and the coach will have confidence putting her in there now.”
Six-three center Jessica Lawson scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while junior forward Leondra Doomes-Stephens added 10 points and six boards. Lawson, despite a couple of knee injuries during her career, can still be difficult to handle in the paint.
“She’s a six-year senior,” said Carey. “She’s very physical inside and can score. She has a hard time getting up and down the floor and if we let them make it a half-court game then she’s very, very effective.”
USF is mostly a man defensive team, but Carey admitted the Bulls may be tempted to play more 2-3 zone on Saturday to force the Mountaineers to beat them from the outside.
“They will play a little bit of 2-3 but their main defense is man-to-man,” Carey said. “That’s not to say they won’t play us 2-3 zone because teams lately have played us more zone than man. We’re prepared to go against their 2-3. It wouldn’t surprise me if they use it.”
West Virginia (23-3, 10-2) wins with defense, the Mountaineers shooting just 41.1% as a team this year. WVU’s four primary outside shooters – Liz Repella, Korinne Campbell, Sarah Miles and Vanessa House – are all shooting below 40% for the season.
“Our strength is defense. We’re shooting in the 30s at home or away,” Carey said. “Hopefully one night we’ll start hitting some shots and if we can do that we’ll be a pretty good team.”
Repella (14.4 ppg.), Campbell (11.0), Asya Bussie (10.9) and Miles (10.1) are all averaging double figures. Campbell is the team’s leading rebounder pulling down 7.5 boards per game.
West Virginia has won three straight and five of its last six. USF has lost four of its last five.
“We need to be prepared and come out and play with some enthusiasm,” said Carey. “These girls have to realize they have a target on their back now. These last four games people are going to try to make their position for the Big East tournament or to get into the NCAA tournament so we’ve got to be prepared for that.”
The Mountaineers are 4-1 against USF since the Bulls joined the Big East including a 90-75 victory in Morgantown last year. In that game Repella led all scorers with 34 points.
Tipoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. MSN’s radio coverage will begin at 4:20 p.m.
