Miles Leads Mountaineers to Finals
March 08, 2010 10:45 PM | General
March 8, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 2 seed West Virginia University women's basketball team advanced to the finals of the 2010 Big East Women's Basketball Championship by beating No. 6 seed Rutgers, 56-49, on Monday evening at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.
"I thought Sarah Miles for the whole game did a great job for us. She was playing a speed higher than anybody else," coach Mike Carey said. "I also thought that Asya Bussie in the beginning, we were able to take the ball inside a little bit and get some scores there. In the end, I think when we were pressing, Sarah was breaking it and making things happen at the other end."
West Virginia (28-4) will now be playing in the finals of the tournament for only the second time in school history. The Mountaineers will be facing Connecticut, coincidentally, the team they faced in their first trip to the finals in 2006 as the No. 12 seed. The Mountaineers upset Louisville, St. John's and Rutgers before falling to the Huskies by a score of 50-44 that year.
In tonight's game, the Mountaineers used an unlikely offensive threat in the junior Miles, who finished with a game and season-high 18 points. The freshman Bussie scored 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field, while pulling down six rebounds and recording three blocks.
"A lot of people have to understand she was a 2-guard last year," Carey said of Miles. "To convert to the point and do the job she's doing this year is unbelievable, and we go as Sarah goes."
West Virginia finished the game shooting 36.4 percent, with Rutgers shooting 36.7 percent. The Mountaineers however held the Scarlet Knights to only 1-of-9 shooting from 3-point range and outrebounded Rutgers, 32-29.
Khadijah Rushdan led Rutgers with 12 points, while Monique Oliver finished with 11 points off the bench.
The game began as a back-and-forth battle, and with Rutgers leading 8-6 with 14:11 remaining, West Virginia went on an 11-2 run that peaked with the score reaching 21-10 in favor of WVU. The Mountaineers used five points from Miles, including a rare 3-pointer, during the run and performed stellar defense.
The Scarlet Knights' Brittany Ray then drained a 3-pointer with 6:12 remaining to end the run and Rutgers began to go on an 11-0 run that tied the score, 21-21. That run saw a five minute scoring drought by West Virginia that was ended with two made free throws from junior Madina Ali after a fantastic hustle play on which she drew the foul. Junior Liz Repella then hit her first field goal of the half after missing her first four to put WVU up 25-21 with only 17 seconds remaining.
Rutgers, however, rushed down the floor with 11 seconds remaining and used a Oliver layup to bring the game within two. Nikki Speed then hit a jumper with five seconds left after a bad inbound pass by Ali to tie the game at 25-25 going into the break.
"We got lackadaisical. We didn't rotate back," Carey said. "Sarah penetrated, and our two-guard didn't rotate and gave up a layup and then take it back and get lackadaisical and a girl up front gets a layup. We addressed those two plays at halftime."
Ali and Bussie led the Mountaineers with six points apiece at the break, while Oliver led Rutgers with six. The Mountaineers were held to 28.6 percent shooting from the floor, but were able to convert 8-of-9 free throws.
The second half began similar to the first half with both teams converting on scoring opportunities before West Virginia was able to go on 9-0 run starting with a 3-pointer from junior Vanessa House with 16:54 remaining. Junior Korrine Campbell scored four points, followed by a layup from Miles to finish the run before Rutgers called a timeout with WVU ahead, 38-31.
"When we made that 9-0 run in the second half, we made some adjustments and that's why Sarah was freed up so much," Carey said. "We just stuck our people that had the triangle on them out and let them play three-on-three and isolate down low and let Sarah have driving lanes instead of getting them involved in the offense at that time."
West Virginia continued to extend their lead with Repella hitting her first 3-pointer of the game with 10:01 remaining. Sophomore Natalie Burton came off the bench and provided some big minutes and hit a layup with 6:28 left to bring West Virginia to its biggest lead of the game, 52-40. Rutgers was never able to regain momentum and the Mountaineers hit 4-of-7 free throws in the final 2:16 to seal the victory.
Tomorrow night's game against UConn will tip at 7 p.m. and be televised on ESPN. No. 1 seed UConn won their 71st consecutive game in a 59-44 win over the No. 5 seed Notre Dame earlier this evening. The streak is a NCAA record.
I win that game, I'm retiring," Carey joked. "They're a great team. Geno (Auriemma) does a great job, and they're deserving of everything they get, believe me. It's extremely hard, even though you have all that talent, to come out and take everybody's best shot night in and night out, and they do a great job at it."
