Women's Basketball: WVU Falls at Connecticut
January 04, 2012 10:35 PM | General
HARTFORD, Conn. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team fell to No.2/2 Connecticut, 79-60, at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. on Wednesday night.
The Mountaineers (10-4, 1-1 BIG EAST) fought hard, overcoming several deficits throughout the game to keep things competitive. Connecticut got out to an early 12-3 lead with 12:36 remaining in the first half, but West Virginia responded and went on a 15-6 scoring run to draw even with the Huskies (12-1, 2-0 BIG EAST) at 18.
Connecticut would pull away again, the score at 29-20 with 1:35 left to play until half. But sophomore Brooke Hampton would step up and score seven straight points for the Mountaineers, allowing the team to go into halftime down just seven points, 34-27.
After the half is when they would struggle, allowing Connecticut to pull away, 43-28, with 16:58 left in regulation. While West Virginia would come within 12 points at the 7:05 mark, they wouldn’t be able to get any closer as the clock wound down.
“You tie it up in the first half, and then turn it over,” Carey said. “They’re up seven at halftime and then we gave up layups or a foul or an offensive rebound. Our guards are just young. Anytime we didn’t go over the pick it would hurt us.
“We just have to get better,” he continued. “We have to get better as a team. I do think that some of our girls played extremely hard.”
Turnovers and missed foul shots cost West Virginia the most, as 29 Mountaineer turnovers led to 30 Connecticut points. Additionally, the Mountaineers could not take advantage of free throws, going just 59.1 percent (13-of-22) from the charity stripe.
Junior Asya Bussie led all players in scoring with 19 points, 17 of them coming in the second half. She was followed by redshirt-sophomore Christal Caldwell who scored 17 points and Hampton who ended the night with 10 points.
“Once we got the ball down and in and got it into (Asya) Bussie we got to see what we could do,” said Carey.
The Mountaineers held the Huskies to 43.8 percent (28-of-64) from the field and to just 20 percent (4-of-20) from beyond the arc. Connecticut capitalized on free throws, however, shooting 67.9 percent (19-of-28) from the line.
In comparison, West Virginia shot 44.9 percent (22-of-49) from the field, 15.8 percent (3-of-19) from beyond the arc and 59.1 percent (13-of-22) from the line.
Caldwell and redshirt-junior Ayana Dunning led the Mountaineer rebounding efforts, each pulling down seven boards to contribute to the team’s total of 37 rebounds. In fact, West Virginia won the rebounding battle by two, but it just wasn’t enough to earn a significant advantage over the Huskies.
Sophomore guard Bria Hartley led Connecticut in scoring with 18 points. Junior guard Kelly Faris came in second in scoring with 14 points and senior guard Tiffany Hayes rounded out the top three scorers with 13 points.
“This will be great film for tomorrow,” Carey concluded. “We had a great game plan--we just didn’t execute. We stress defense and I still thought some of our girls played extremely hard. With Connecticut you can’t give them layups and second shots. We got out of control sometimes. I have to do a better job of teaching our team against pressure and spacing. I have to do a better job.”
The Mountaineers return to action at the Coliseum on Saturday, January 7th when they play host to Villanova in a 7 p.m. tip.
Live video and stats of Saturday’s game will be provided by MSNsportsNET.com.
The Mountaineers (10-4, 1-1 BIG EAST) fought hard, overcoming several deficits throughout the game to keep things competitive. Connecticut got out to an early 12-3 lead with 12:36 remaining in the first half, but West Virginia responded and went on a 15-6 scoring run to draw even with the Huskies (12-1, 2-0 BIG EAST) at 18.
Connecticut would pull away again, the score at 29-20 with 1:35 left to play until half. But sophomore Brooke Hampton would step up and score seven straight points for the Mountaineers, allowing the team to go into halftime down just seven points, 34-27.
After the half is when they would struggle, allowing Connecticut to pull away, 43-28, with 16:58 left in regulation. While West Virginia would come within 12 points at the 7:05 mark, they wouldn’t be able to get any closer as the clock wound down.
“You tie it up in the first half, and then turn it over,” Carey said. “They’re up seven at halftime and then we gave up layups or a foul or an offensive rebound. Our guards are just young. Anytime we didn’t go over the pick it would hurt us.
“We just have to get better,” he continued. “We have to get better as a team. I do think that some of our girls played extremely hard.”
Turnovers and missed foul shots cost West Virginia the most, as 29 Mountaineer turnovers led to 30 Connecticut points. Additionally, the Mountaineers could not take advantage of free throws, going just 59.1 percent (13-of-22) from the charity stripe.
Junior Asya Bussie led all players in scoring with 19 points, 17 of them coming in the second half. She was followed by redshirt-sophomore Christal Caldwell who scored 17 points and Hampton who ended the night with 10 points.
“Once we got the ball down and in and got it into (Asya) Bussie we got to see what we could do,” said Carey.
The Mountaineers held the Huskies to 43.8 percent (28-of-64) from the field and to just 20 percent (4-of-20) from beyond the arc. Connecticut capitalized on free throws, however, shooting 67.9 percent (19-of-28) from the line.
In comparison, West Virginia shot 44.9 percent (22-of-49) from the field, 15.8 percent (3-of-19) from beyond the arc and 59.1 percent (13-of-22) from the line.
Caldwell and redshirt-junior Ayana Dunning led the Mountaineer rebounding efforts, each pulling down seven boards to contribute to the team’s total of 37 rebounds. In fact, West Virginia won the rebounding battle by two, but it just wasn’t enough to earn a significant advantage over the Huskies.
Sophomore guard Bria Hartley led Connecticut in scoring with 18 points. Junior guard Kelly Faris came in second in scoring with 14 points and senior guard Tiffany Hayes rounded out the top three scorers with 13 points.
“This will be great film for tomorrow,” Carey concluded. “We had a great game plan--we just didn’t execute. We stress defense and I still thought some of our girls played extremely hard. With Connecticut you can’t give them layups and second shots. We got out of control sometimes. I have to do a better job of teaching our team against pressure and spacing. I have to do a better job.”
The Mountaineers return to action at the Coliseum on Saturday, January 7th when they play host to Villanova in a 7 p.m. tip.
Live video and stats of Saturday’s game will be provided by MSNsportsNET.com.
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