Published: March 01, 2008 11:40 pm         

WVU women rally to beat Louisville

MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia women’s basketball team defeated Louisville Saturday to lock up the third seed for the Big East tournament March 8-13 at Hartford, Conn.

But the 13th-ranked Mountaineers had to dig themselves out of a deep hole in the first half before getting on track to a 78-70 victory before a crowd of 4,157, the fourth-largest ever to see a women’s game in the Coliseum.

In assuring the school’s highest-ever Big East finish, West Virginia made its record 23-5 overall and 12-3 in the conference. In the process, it snapped the Cardinals’ seven-game winning streak and left them with 20-8 and 9-6 marks.

“We needed that,” a happy WVU coach Mike Carey said. “No matter how ugly it may have been, our girls never quit. I’m very, very proud of them. It was a great team effort.”

The Mountaineers, who trailed by 12 points after Louisville’s 25-4 tear during an 11-minute stretch in the first half, finally rallied from that 29-17 deficit to trail by just 34-31 at intermission. Carey thought that spurt was the huge key to their crucial comeback conquest.

Olayinka Sanni and Meg Bulger, two of seven seniors playing their final home game, led the winning attack with 20 points each. Sanni also had six rebounds, an assist and two steals. Bulger hit 6 of 11 shots from three-point range and had two rebounds, one assist and two steals.

Mainly because of her league-leading production from behind the arc, WVU now has a school-record 208 three-point goals for the season. The previous high was 206 in the 2005-06 season.

WVU winds up the regular season Monday night at Syracuse, and will have a bye in the Big East tourney.

Angel McCoughtry, the conference’s top scorer who ranks third nationally, tallied a game-high 29 points to lead Louisville. But she showed a mere seven points at halftime. McCoughtry also topped all rebounders with 11 and had five steals.

Teammate Candyce Bingham had 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Chauntise Wright and Brandie Radde chipped in 11 points apiece.

After shooting just 32.4 percent the first half, the Mountaineers made 57.1 percent the second half and 41.4 percent for the game. Louisville shot 41.4 percent.

The Cardinals managed a 38-33 edge in rebounds and committed 24 turnovers to WVU’s 22. Obviously, neither team took very good care of the basketball.

The game was tied just twice at 13 and 15 as the Cardinals went on their 11-minute take-charge binge. There were four lead changes in the second half.

Lasteefah Joye’s two- and three-point goals, back-to-back, gave WVU a 46-44 lead it never relinquished with 12:30 left.

Louisville cashed 14 of 20 free throws in the first half while the home team was just 2 of 3. But the teams were 19 of 28 and 19 of 25, respectively, for the game.

It remained nip-and-tuck until the Mountaineers made their advantage 10 points at 71-61 with 1:25 to go. Then they protected the lead by making free throws.

“I told them this was a great win,” Carey said. “We didn’t play that well and we didn’t shoot that well. But I kept telling them, ‘We’re not going to lose this game.’”

Jeff Walz, Louisville’s first-year coach, lamented that “we had breakdowns at crucial times, and they were hitting threes. You can’t beat a good time like West Virginia on the road. There are things we have to work on.”

Sanni said, “This was a nice way to go out at home. Coach Carey said a couple words (late in the first half) and I think that fired us up. I think (the Cardinals) wore down near the end.”

Bulger said, “I felt great hitting those threes. Then they adjusted their defense and we didn’t respond very well. Our shots were barely missing, going in and out, during that long dry spell.

“But we did a better job penetrating and hitting our shots in the second half.”