COLUMBUS, Ohio - The West Virginia University women’s basketball team makes its 11th NCAA Championship appearance on Friday, March 18, when the No. 6-seed Mountaineers take on No. 11-seed Princeton in the first round. Tipoff is scheduled for noon ET. Friday’s contest will be televised in its entirety on ESPN2 in West Virginia, Pittsburgh, parts of western Maryland and New Jersey. Fans in other areas can watch the entire game on ESPN3 or ESPN FULL COURT.
Jeff Culhane and Liz Repella will call the game on the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG. Listen to the contest on various affiliates across the state, online at WVUsports.com or by using the TuneIn Radio app.
The Mountaineers (24-9, 12-6 Big 12) return to the Big Dance after last appearing in 2014 and are making their 10th consecutive postseason appearance and ninth NCAA berth under coach Mike Carey. West Virginia exceeded expectations this year by finishing third in the Big 12 Conference, surpassing the predicted sixth-place finish as voted by the league’s coaches in the preseason. The Mountaineers are the youngest team in the country by scholarship players returning percentage (27%) to produce 24 or more victories.
Friday’s WVU-Princeton winner will play the victor of the No. 3-seed Ohio State vs. No. 14-seed Buffalo game on Sunday, March 20, at a time to be determined. The first and second round winners will advance to the Sioux Falls Regional.
“We’re excited to be here at Ohio State. Our players did a great job this year,” coach Carey said. “We’re a young team, but we have some great veterans. We’re looking forward to opening up against Princeton; they have a lot of senior athletes, they’re a very good and experienced basketball team.”
West Virginia and Princeton will meet for the first time in program history. Princeton (23-5, 12-2 Ivy League) fell 62-60 to Penn in the season finale on March 8, as the Quakers clinched the Ivy League title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The loss snapped the Tigers’ 12-game winning streak. Princeton picked up notable non-conference victories over Michigan (74-57) and Pitts (61-47). Princeton is averaging 76.0 points per game and holding opponents to 57.8 points per contest. Princeton is second nationally with a +14.8 rebound margin and fourth in the NCAA with 31 defensive rebounds per game. Three Tigers are averaging double-figures, including Michelle Miller with a team-best 14.1 points per game. Alex Wheatley follows with 12.7 points per contest. Annie Tarakchian leads Princeton with 9.4 rebounds per game, while scoring 12.0 points per contest. PU is the first school in Ivy League history to earn an at-large berth in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship.
“They’re pretty good defensively,” noted Carey. “They keep themselves in front of you, they get to the ball, they rebound well, and they all can run. Their post players run as well as any of their guards, which is a concern for us. They do have good size on the perimeter all the way around, which means they can switch and do some things defensively because of their size.”
WVU and Princeton’s lone common opponent was Yale. The Mountaineers knocked off the Bulldogs, 70-60, on Nov. 29 in the Naismith Memorial Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Challenge in Uncasville, Connecticut. The Tigers swept the Bulldogs with a 65-50 win on Jan. 30 and a 94-81 victory on Feb. 19.
WVU ranked No. 23 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll of the season and is No. 25 in the latest USA TODAY Sports Coaches’ Poll released on Monday. West Virginia is sixth nationally with 6.8 blocks per game and are 16th in the NCAA with a 35.1 field goal percentage defense.
Three-time unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection Bria Holmes leads the Mountaineers with 16.4 points and 3.6 assists per game. Holmes is 46 points away from becoming the third Mountaineer to reach the 2,000-point plateau. She is the Big 12’s active career scoring leader with 1,954 points.
Lanay Montgomery, an All-Big 12 Second Team honoree, leads WVU with 8.0 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game. Montgomery’s 60.5 field goal percentage is second in the league. Big 12 Freshman of the Year and All-Freshman honoree Tynice Martin is third on the team with 10.0 points per game. Martin is a finalist for the United States Basketball Writers Association National Freshman of the Year award. Teana Muldrow is also averaging double-figures with 10.5 points per game.
West Virginia University is just one of 10 athletic programs nationally to have its football team participate in a bowl game and its men’s and women’s basketball programs compete in the NCAA Championships. The Big 12 Conference leads the way with three schools: Baylor, Oklahoma and WVU.
