Women's Basketball: WVU Outlasts Hoyas

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Women's Basketball: WVU Outlasts Hoyas By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com January 14, 2006 BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Other than the result, West Virginia coach Mike Carey says the biggest positive coming out of his team’s 65-54 victory over Georgetown Saturday afternoon was the fact that they were able to accomplish it with star guard Meg Bulger sitting out most of the second half in foul trouble. West Virginia's LaQuita Owens drives to the basket during Saturday's 65-54 win over Georgetown at the WVU Coliseum. Owens finished the game with a career-high 14 points. All-Pro Photography “I thought we came out hard and then went a little flat when we got the lead,” said Carey. “It didn’t look like we had energy. As the game went on I give the people that were playing at the end a lot of credit because they were playing hard.” Bulger, West Virginia’s top scorer averaging 20 points per game, picked up her fourth foul with 16:54 remaining in the game and West Virginia leading by just five, 45-40. Georgetown (8-7, 1-3) wound up taking a 44-42 lead before Bulger’s replacement LaQuita Owens took over the game. After Yelena Leuchanka tied the score at 44, Owens scored the next eight points for the Mountaineers (10-4, 3-1) to give West Virginia an eight-point, 52-44 lead. Owens hit a pair of 3s during the run and also converted a couple of free throws. The sophomore finished the game with a career-high 14 points. “That was very important,” said Carey. “We had to have some outside shooting and Owens the last couple of games has come out and shot well from the perimeter. We really needed it this game. She gave us a boost and gave us an opportunity to keep Meg on the bench with four fouls.” As Carey indicated, the Charlotte, N.C., resident has come on strong of late, scoring 12 points in her last outing against Louisville. Owens has made seven of her last 10 3-pointers. Bulger wound up with 16 points in just 23 minutes of action. The Big East’s third leading scorer finished 5 of 11 from the floor making all five of her shots from 3-point distance. West Virginia was 23 of 56 overall for 41.1 percent, but hit only 10 of 17 from the free-throw line and committed 21 turnovers – two areas of concern for Carey all season. “They had eight players and we needed to make it an up and down type of game. But because of the fouling and the turnovers it wasn’t that type of game,” Carey said. Georgetown had a rough go of it from the floor, making only 18 of 51 for 35.3 percent. The Hoyas were 2 of 12 from 3-point range. Olayinka Sanni contributed 14 points for WVU. Chakhia Cole grabbed a game-best 13 rebounds while Leuchanka finished with 12 caroms off the bench. WVU had a 41-33 rebounding advantage. “I thought Yelena rebound wise did a great job for us,” said Carey. “She had some big rebounds. Because of the foul trouble we had to go 2-3 zone in the second half.” Georgetown got 15 from Kate Carlin. Kieraah Marlow scored 13, Katrina Wheeler had 11 and Bethany LeSueur added 10. “Give Georgetown credit. They did a good job and they took it right at us,” said Carey. “We were standing flat footed a little bit and got into foul trouble. I think they baited Meg a little bit and she went for it.” The coach was hoping his young team could build off of the outstanding performance it had last Tuesday night blowing out a good Louisville team by 26 points. “We come out and play great against Louisville and then today we come out and just stand around,” Carey said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, if it’s Louisville or Georgetown, anyone can beat you. That’s something we have to learn.” WVU has now won five consecutive contests at the WVU Coliseum against the Hoyas. WVU also improves to 17-5 in its last 22 Big East home games. West Virginia returns to the court next Wednesday night playing at Villanova. That game will start at 7:30 pm.