West Virginia guard Gia Cooke, left, makes an attempt a shot towards Villanova’s Kennedy Henry throughout a recreation on Monday. (Photo by
Benjamin Powell,
The Dominion Post)
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s string of 21 consecutive wins contained in the Hope Coliseum ended Monday night time, and that’s the very least of considerations for the time being for WVU women’s head coach Mark Kellogg.
Villanova, behind profession performances from each Jasmine Brascoe and Brynn McCurry, dismantled the Twenty fifth-ranked Mountaineers, 81-59, handing WVU its largest loss below Kellogg.
“They did everything better than we did, to be completely honest,” Kellogg stated. “It’s a sense that we haven’t had on this constructing. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this fashion.
“Really disappointed in this one. (Villanova) is a good basketball team, but I think we should be better than what we showed tonight.”
WVU (6-2) has now misplaced two straight and each of these losses might be pinned on its protection. Villanova shot 52.4% (33 of 63) from the ground, with Brascoe going for twenty-four and McCurry including 21. Ohio State shot 48% in its 83-81 victory final week in The Bahamas.
“We’ve got to fix quite a few things, defensively, obviously being one of those,” Kellogg stated. “We’ve not been very good on the defensive end for the last three games. That’s what we typically pride ourselves on and we’re not where we need to be.”
It wasn’t a lot the loss to the Wildcats (6-2), who got here into the sport having misplaced to each Fairfield and Princeton earlier this season, it was extra about how WVU misplaced this one.
Villanova blitzed proper by means of the Mountaineers’ full-court strain to the purpose the place Kellogg ultimately needed to name it off and check out one thing else.
“They were just kind of picking us apart,” was the way in which WVU level guard Jordan Harrison defined it. “We could have done better as a team, because we had already worked on what they were going to do. I don’t know why we were so surprised by it. They definitely had a good game plan and took us completely out of (the press).”
WVU turned the ball over 16 occasions, a lot of them coming from passes that had been both tipped or intercepted. One inbounds go from below the basket sailed out to Meg Bulger.
The solely downside with that’s Bulger is now a TV analyst and hasn’t performed for the Mountaineers since 2008.
WVU was held to simply 33% (19 of 58) taking pictures from the ground, with a bulk of that coming from shut misses across the rim. The Mountaineers completed simply 12 of 37 on lay-up makes an attempt. Those misses included pictures that went fully over the rim, didn’t make it to the rim or had been shot so arduous that the ball got here off the backboard with out hitting the rim.
“We didn’t get a great whistle and I thought we were looking for fouls instead of trying to finish,” Kellogg stated. “That was disappointing that we were going in there and just throwing crap up and hoping that we would get bailed out by the official. We did not, so you have to be able to slow down and convert.”
And then there was the play of Bascoe and McCurry. Both had already surpassed their particular person scoring averages earlier than the top of the primary half and went on to attain greater than half of Villanova’s factors. The two mixed to attain 35 factors within the first half, the identical quantity of factors WVU had as a staff.
“She’s a really good player, but we did everything we weren’t supposed to do,” Kellogg stated of Bascoe, an all-Big East freshman choice final season. “We allowed her to get comfortable. She got to the rim and got to the mid-range and made a couple of threes. I thought we got her off-balance and uncomfortable a couple of times, but it obviously didn’t matter at that point.”
Meanwhile, WVU’s solely offense got here from guard Gia Cooke, who completed with 20 factors. It was her third consecutive recreation with a minimum of 20 factors.
“It was just being aggressive,” Cooke stated. “The game plan told us they could guard, but a lot of those baseline drives were going to be there.”
WVU didn’t generate a lot offense in any other case. Jordan Harrison didn’t make a shot till the third quarter and completed 3 of 12 from the ground. Sydney Shaw was 2 of seven taking pictures and completed with a season-low 5 factors.
Kierra Wheeler was the one different WVU participant in double figures. She completed with 10 factors and eight rebounds.