Women's Basketball: WVU Falls to Syracuse
March 01, 2010 10:24 PM | General
March 1, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A strong second half by Syracuse led the Orange to a 67-48 win over the No. 7 ranked West Virginia University women’s basketball team on Monday evening at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y.
West Virginia suffered only their fourth loss of the season and its first in the last six games. Despite the loss, the Mountaineers still clinched a No. 2 seed in the Big East tournament that includes a double bye through the first and second rounds.
Liz Repella had a team-high 11 points, while Asya Bussie had 9 points and six rebounds. Madina Ali and Sarah Miles each had 8 points, with Ali grabbing nine rebounds.
WVU opened the first half scorching hot with Repella hitting her first three shots to help West Virginia to an early 18-4 run to give the Mountaineers a double-digit first half lead.
After a Miles jumper to put the Mountaineers up 25-11 at the 6:16 mark, Syracuse started to mount a comeback that saw the Orange go on a 19-9 run to end the half with West Virginia leading 34-30.
Syracuse forced 14 Mountaineer turnovers in the half, while also outrebounding WVU on the offensive glass, 10-4. During the run, Syracuse used points from six different players with Erica Morrow leading the squad with 11 points in the half.
Syracuse started the second half on a 9-1 run to take the lead at 39-35 before Asya Bussie stopped the run with a jump shot. Bussie then hit two free throws to bring the deficit to 40-39 with 14:12 left. Then West Virginia went cold, enabling Syrause to go on a 28-8 run to put the Mountaineers away.
Erica Morrow scored a game-high 23 points for the Orange to go along with a stellar zone defense that shut down West Virginia in the second half. Nicole Michael, Syracuse’s leading scorer, finished with 8 points and seven rounds after leaving the game early in the second half with an injury.
West Virginia finished the game shooting 31.3 percent, including 14.3 percent in second half, while the Orange shot 33.3 percent for the game and 41.2 percent in the second half. The Orange also outrebounded West Virginia, 54-36.
A similar story occurred two seasons ago when the Orange upset the then-14th-ranked Mountaineers in the Carrier Dome by a score of 73-51. This is the fourth time Syracuse has had a 20-win season in school history.
West Virginia will now travel to Hartford, Conn., to play in the 2010 Big East tournament from March 5-9 in the XL Center. Marquette and Villanova will open action in the West Virginia side of the bracket with the winner of that game playing DePaul. The winner of the DePaul and Marquette/Villanova game will take on West Virginia on Sunday, March 7, at 6 p.m. with the game being televised on ESPNU.
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