West Virginia got the better end of the Villanova Wildcats this time around. The 13th-ranked women jumped out to a 22-2 lead and never looked back as they cruise to a 76-55 victory.

With the win West Virginia is now 11-2 in the conference. UPDATE: With the sPittsburgh Panthers losing to Marquette tonight 76-69 the Mountaineers will clinch a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament IF they beat the Panthers on Tuesday night at the Pete. The game will be televised on CSTV at 8pm. GOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS! This scenario is another testament to Coach Mike Carey as to how far the women’s program as come since the gory days of Alexis Basil.

Villanova came into this game leading the nation in three-pointers and did not score a single point in the almost the first 7 minutes. After Nova finally scored a bucket the Eers scored 11 more points to give them a 22-2 lead at the midpoint of the first half. The crummy shooting didn’t last long as the Wildcats when on a 12-2 to cut the lead to 10 at 24-14. The Mounties countered back with an 8-0 run to ultimately give the Eers a 32-16 halftime lead.

West Virginia put the Villanova frontcourt on a steady deal of Yinka Sanni. Sanni finished the game 9 of 15 shooting and scored 21 points. The Cats could not stop her not even as they made trey after trey in the second half. The closest Villanova would come to cutting the Mountaineer lead was 14. The Eers would always counter back with a timely bucket or two. In spite of Owens absence, the Mountaineers were 7 of 10 three-point shooting. Liz Repella stepped up as she scored 13 points while Meg Bulger scored 12 in her first start since her left knee was tweaked against Marshall. Villanova’s strength was weaken by the tenacious zone defense as they were only 8 of 26 shooting plus were out-rebounded 36-25. They were uncharacteristically careless with the ball which improved as the game wore on but not enough to turn it around.

West Virginia will head up I-79 to the Petersen Events Center as they play the hated Pittsburgh Panthers Tuesday night. Here’s hoping the Mounties will sweep the Panthers. It’s now gametime for the men and I will have an in-depth game summary as the Mountaineers are fighing to be on the Tournament Committee good side. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!