Published: March 02, 2008 10:58 pm         

Women visit Orange in finale

MORGANTOWN — The West Virginia University women didn’t have much time to celebrate Saturday afternoon’s 78-70 basketball victory over Louisville at the Coliseum.

The 13th-ranked Mountaineers had to leave early Sunday morning for Syracuse, where they wind up the regular-season in a game against Syracuse at 7 p.m. Monday in the Carrier Dome. 

“They have athletes that can take you off the dribble,” coach Mike Carey said. “They play some man-to-man but mostly zone, mainly a 2-3. We’ll probably have a lot of looks against their zone, and it is going t be a matter of us putting it in the hole.”

Even though WVU (23-5, 12-3) already has locked up a third-place finish, the highest in school history, both Carey and his players, especially the seven seniors, say they’re still playing to win.

The Orange (21-8, 9-6) certainly should be fired up. It’s Senior Night and that team is tied with Louisville and Pitt for fifth place in the Big East standings.

So seeding will be a stake for those three teams for the conference tournament this coming weekend at Hartford, Conn. 

West Virginia already is assured of a third-place finish and will receive one of the four first-round byes. 

Syracuse, coached by Quentin Hillsman, has all five starters back from last year’s squad which posted a 9-20 record.

WVU has won the last six meetings, including a 67-49 victory last year in the Coliseum, and leads the all-time series by a 10-7 margin.

While 6-foot-2 Olayinka Sanni and 6-0 Meg Bulger showed the way in the comeback conquest of Louisville with 20 points each, Carey cited reserve Lateefah Joye for a major contribution off the bench.    

“What a spark she was,” he said. “We put her in for her defense. We thought she could lock up Angel Coughtry a little bit. Putting her in for her defense, it was a bonus when we got some scoring from her.

“She’s a senior and we expected that of her, and she did a good job.”

Louisville coach Jeff Walz praised Sanni.

“She plays extremely hard,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for her game. She does a good of at getting into the paint and staying in there. She does a good job at going from side to side so she doesn’t get a three-second violation.”