The 17th ranked WVU women’s basketball team used a 15-2 run in the second half to pull away from the South Florida Lady Bulls and hang on to win 79-73. Sparkle Davis overcame the foul trouble of Chakhia Cole, Ashley Powell, and Lateefah Joye to score 22 points and dish out 5 assists. Yinka Sanni scored a team-high 23 points on 10 of 13 shooting plus a game-high 7 rebounds. Meg Bulger, who replaced Davis in the starting line-up earlier in the season, chipped in with 16 points.
To briefly summarize West Virginia shot 54% from the field in the first half with 7 3-pointers but what kept USF close throughout the first half was WVU being in foul trouble at start of both halves. They committed 11 personal fouls in the first 12 minutes which included both Cole and Joye with 3 fouls each as well as 6 personal fouls in the first five minutes of the second half that claimed Powell a spot of the bench with her 4 fouls.
USF were down by 1 when WVU broke off a 15-2 spurt to make the score 69-55 with 4:36 left in the second half. USF tried to make a valiant rally under Shantia Grace, who scored a game-high 25 points, but they fell short. West Virginia played for the first time in two weeks and expect for the fouls didn’t show any rust at all. They shot 55% from the floor including 11 for 22 from the three-point line.
The true test will come on Wednesday night as they go to Storrs, Connecuticut to play the Number 1 ranked UConn Huskies. That should be an interesting game right there as WVU gets closer and closer to their level. GOOOOOOOOOOOO Mountaineers!
