MORGANTOWN – The West Virginia women’s basketball seniors proved they wanted to go out with a bang as the five combined for 62 points, paving the way to a 69-49 win over St. John’s in the final home game of the 2010-11 season, Monday night at the WVU Coliseum.
“I wanted these seniors to go out as a winner here on the home floor,” coach Mike Carey said. “That was just as important for me as playing for our life. They deserve it. They’ve done a lot of great things on and off the floor. I’m proud of them and I would’ve told them after the game I’m proud of them, win or lose. It’s a great group and I can hope to have another group like this.”
Senior guard and co-captain Liz Repella led all scorers with a game-leading 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting. Behind Repella, seniors Sarah Miles and Korinne Campbell chipped in 16 and 13 points, respectively. Repella was one rebound shy of a double-double as she had nine boards to co-lead the rebounding efforts with co-captain Madina Ali, who had nine points in addition to nine rebounds.
The Mountaineers (22-8, 8-8 BIG EAST) closed out the game on 41 percent shooting (25-61), while limiting the Red Storm (20-9, 9-7 BIG EAST) to 38.8 percent (19-49) from the field. The Mountaineers out-rebounded St. John’s, 46-30, forced 20 turnovers to their own 18 and limited the Red Storm to a team-total three assists.
“They forced us into a lot of turnovers,” St. John’s head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “Our point guard was awful. It was probably the worst game of her career. She really got taken out of her game. I thought they did a tremendous job of pressuring her and really forcing her into turnovers. Their defensive pressure, obviously, took us out of our game.”
St. John’s scoring was led by Shenneika Smith with 10 points as the lone player in double figures. She also led off the boards alongside Centhya Hart with five rebounds each.
“We still need to go to the BIG EAST and win one or two,” Carey said. “I’m not putting all our eggs in the BIG EAST tournament. My most important thing, and we kind of hurt ourselves with our seeding now because our seeding won’t be as great as we want it to be, but we need to focus on the BIG EAST tournament and the NCAA, if we get in. We have to make some noise and start playing a little better.”
The 10th seeded Mountaineers return to action during the first round of the Big East Tournament at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. on Friday evening at 6 p.m.
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