The West Virginia women’s basketball team overcame the wrong end of some calls in the end to defeat the Marquette Golden Eagles 68-63. Senior Yinka Sanni scored 21 points and pulled down an astounding 16 rebounds as the starters scored 63 of the team’s 68 points. All Big East guard Ellis scored 23 points in a losing effort.

The game was surprising close early with Marquette using their front-court height to their advantage by jamming the ball inside and causing WVU to get into foul trouble early. LaQuita Owens and Meg Bulger where the unfortunate ones as they each collected two fouls. Despite that WVU starts to take command with a 17-10 lead with 9:00 remaining in the first half. Undeterred Marquette used their zone trap to their advantage as they take control of a 22-9 run to take a 32-26 lead. Ashley Powell drove to the hoop with time running out in the first half to go down by four at 32-28.

The level of tempo went to a quicker pace as Marquette maintained their lead for the first eight minutes of the second half. Then WVU wakes up as they embark on a 16-2 run to take a big 53-43 with 8:32 left to go. Then Bulger hit back to back 3s to steady the big lead. It looked like WVU was going to comfortably get the W until some questionable calls riled up the WVU crowd and got Marquette back in it with foul shots closing the lead to 63-60 with 2:10 left in the game. All Big East player Krystal Ellis had a chance to tie the game on their next possession but her shot from the right wing was too strong.

Powell made some key foul shots to make it 66-60 but she was the culprit in fouling Ellis from way downtown. Ellis sank all three free throws 66-63 with 17.7 left. Then Marquette’s full-court trap would wreak havoc one more time as Owens was called for traveling with 15 seconds left. Ellis’s last shot was off the mark and Sanni pulled down the rebound in heavy traffic. She calmly made two foul shots and that was the end of a hard-fought game.

The West Virginia women’s team will go to the campus of St. John’s University Saturday afternoon to play the Red Storm. The win tonight improves their record at 14-2 with a 3-1 Big East record. Don’t forget the West Virginia men’s team will play the St. John’s Red Storm tomorrow night at the WVU Coliseum. The tip-off is at 7:00pm. Great job tonight ladies.