Jan. 17, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The roller coaster of emotions took another dip for the Notre Dame women’s basketball team, as the Irish dropped a 64-51 decision to West Virginia Saturday afternoon in BIG EAST Conference action at WVU Coliseum. It was the first win in 12 tries for the Mountaineers against Notre Dame and it was a disappointing postscript to a week that had seen the Irish defeat back-to-back ranked opponents (No. 16/15 Virginia Tech and No. 4/4 Connecticut) in a four-day span. It also was another example of Notre Dame’s struggles on the road – the Irish are 2-7 away from the Joyce Center this year (1-7 in true road games).
Junior forward Jacqueline Batteast (South Bend, Ind./Washington HS) continued her torrid play against BIG EAST opponents, posting her third consecutive double-double and sixth of the season with game highs of 22 points and 10 rebounds. The Irish All-America candidate made 10 of 14 shots from the floor en route to the 60th double-figure scoring game of her career and the 25th double-double of her Irish tenure. In four conference games this year, Batteast is averaging 19.3 points and 10.0 rebounds with a .635 field goal percentage (33 of 52) and three double-doubles.
Unfortunately, Batteast did not receive much offensive assistance in Saturday’s loss at West Virginia. Sophomore forward Courtney LaVere (Ventura, Calif./Buena HS) was the only other Notre Dame player to score in double figures, coming off the bench to tally 10 points on four of eight shooting. Sophomore guard Megan Duffy (Dayton, Ohio/Chaminade-Julienne HS) passed out a game-high six assists, marking the ninth time this year she has had at least five assists in a game. She also has been distributing the ball well lately, averaging 6.7 assists in her last three games.
The Irish did shoot 50 percent (22 of 44) from the field, the second consecutive game in which they have made at least half their shots. However, Notre Dame was done in at the foul line (a season-low .250 percentage, three of 12) and by the turnover bug (23 giveaways converted into 21 WVU points).
Kate Bulger led a trio of Mountaineers in double digits with 20 points, while Yolanda Paige had 14 points and six assists, and Janell Dunlap added 10 points. West Virginia won the rebounding battle, 33-32 and turned the ball over only nine times. The Mountaineers (11-5, 3-2 BIG EAST) managed a .367 field goal percentage (22 of 60), the third straight Irish opponent to be held under 40 percent from the floor, but WVU made up for it at the free throw line by canning an opponent season-best 94.4 percent of their foul shots (17 of 18).
Notre Dame (9-7, 2-2) looked sharp in the early going, jumping out to a 10-4 lead when Batteast rattled in a short jumper at the 13:40 mark. That’s when the Irish offense went cold and West Virginia took advantage, reeling off 24 consecutive points over the next 8:41 to take command of the contest. Notre Dame did manage to get back within 30-17 on a Batteast layup with 2:28 remaining, but WVU closed the period on a mini 6-2 run to take a 19-point lead, its largest of the game at the intermission.
Remembering the 14-point deficit it faced in the same building last season and the ensuing comeback victory, Notre Dame felt it could rally once again against the Mountaineers. The Irish methodically began to trim the WVU lead, getting it down to 13 points at the first media timeout and eventually carding an 18-5 run to open the second half. When sophomore center Teresa Borton (Yakima, Wash./West Valley HS) hit a layup with 11:53 to play, Notre Dame was within 41-35 and seemingly had the momentum in its corner.
Following another media timeout, Dunlap stopped the Irish rally with a jumper, which ignited a 13-4 West Virginia run that wiped out virtually all of Notre Dame’s hard work to that point. Still, the Irish doggedly pursued their hosts and twice whittled their deficit down to eight points, the second coming when LaVere hit a jumper with 3:32 remaining to make the score 56-48. Notre Dame had a chance to creep even closer but misfired on its next possession. Paige then came up with a steal and layup on the following Irish possession to finally put Notre Dame down for the count. WVU iced its win by making all six of its free throws in the final 67 seconds.
The Irish will look to bounce back Wednesday when they travel to Syracuse for a 7 p.m. (ET) tipoff at Manley Field House. The Orangewomen are 6-8 this year (3-1 in the BIG EAST) following a 55-50 win at Providence on Saturday.
— ND —