The No. 25 West Virginia women’s basketball team struggled offensively, falling to No. 3/3 Notre Dame 73-45 in the semifinals of the BIG EAST tournament Monday at the XL Center.
“I think West Virginia has always been a tough place to play,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “Mike Carey has done a really great job, especially this year, losing four starters and coming back. When you play their teams, you know that they’re going to be well coached. They’re going to be great defensive teams. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the country. Mike does a really good job. This year he could have been ‘Coach of the Year’. He really got that team going. I think they’re a team that’s always in the hunt. It’s always a difficult game for us. So we wish them well as they leave the conference.”
“Don’t think I’m not proud of these players because I really am. I’m disappointed in today,” coach Mike Carey said. “I never thought we’d come out and play flat like we did. But for the whole season I am very proud of the players and they deserve a lot of credit.
“Especially Yaya (Ayana Dunning), Asya (Bussie) and Jess Harlee–what great leadership that they provide,” Carey continued. “We just need to get smarter. With all that being said, we got beat today. Notre Dame was the better team. I’m still very proud of all that our players were able to accomplish this season.”
The Fighting Irish (30-2) came out with vengeance after falling to WVU in the regular season. Notre Dame had a 14-4 lead in the first six minutes and never let up, taking a 37-19 halftime lead. WVU never gave up, but the early double-digit deficit was too much to overcome.
“We knew they were going to come out that first eight minutes and try to bury us,” Carey said. “I thought we had a good plan and we just didn’t execute it for whatever reason. Give Notre Dame credit. They came out and played. I’m not like some of these other coaches who make excuses and don’t give credit to the other team. They beat us. They deserved to win because they were the better team today.”
The Mountaineers were led by Asya Bussie and Ayana Dunning with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Freshmen Averee Fields and Akilah Bethel chipped in a combined 12 points off the bench.
The Bussie-Dunning tandem helped WVU dominate the paint, out-scoring Notre Dame 32-18 under the basket, including 15 second chance points.
WVU and Notre Dame pulled off the same amount of shot attempts with 54, but the Fighting Irish sunk 42.6 percent (23-54) compared to the Mountaineers’ 35.2 percent (19-54). Notre Dame made 7-of-16 from beyond the arc, while cold shooting plagued WVU with a mere 1-of-13 (7.7%) 3-pointers.
The Fighting Irish capitalized from the free throw line, converting 87 percent (20-23), while WVU made 40 percent (6-15) from the charity stripe. Turnovers proved costly as Notre Dame capitalized with 26 points off 22 WVU turnovers.
The Mountaineers took advantage of the boards, out-rebounding Notre Dame 37-33, led by Bethel with a career-best nine rebounds. Fields and Bussie pulled down six and five rebounds, respectively.
Notre Dame had four players in double figures behind Natalie Novosel’s 18 points on 4-of-4 shooting both from behind the arc and from the free throw line. Kayla McBride had 15 points, Devereaux Peters added 11 and Brittany Mallory added 10 points with a pair of threes.
The loss ends West Virginia’s BIG EAST tournament run and its NCAA fate will be announced at the NCAA selection show on Monday, March 12 at 7 p.m. on ESPN.