The Mountaineers are coming off an outstanding victory over the 9th seeded Texas Longhorns, now they will have one of their toughest matchups all season, against the 1st seeded Stanford Cardinal. This will be one of the biggest games of the year for the Mountaineers and they will need to play like they did against Texas if they want to beat Stanford.
West Virginia played an absolutely flawless game against Texas. Taylor Palmer led the Mountaineers in scoring with 18 points and she will need to have a repeat performance if West Virginia hopes to stand a chance against a very tough Stanford team. Asya Bussie also
had a great game with 12 points, 6 rebounds, one assist and one block. Bussie and Palmer both need to have huge games in order for West Virginia to keep this game close.
Another player who needs to contribute heavily is Jessica Harlee. Harlee had 10 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. She will need to crash the boards and drop shots when her number is called. Ayana Dunning is also another player who has to grab rebounds and make shots when the time comes. The Mountaineers outrebounded the Longhorns 39-37 and this is what helped led them to victory. Another big factor that favored West Virginia was the assist department; they had 17 assists while Texas had only 9 assists.
On the defensive side of the ball West Virginia did a pretty decent job. They had 5 steals and 4 blocks. The Mountaineers will have to be more aggressive against this Cardinal team. If they can take the ball away more and reject more shots, then West Virginia might be able to get the upper hand on Stanford. They will also have to play with the same intensity they played with on Saturday. West Virginia did a great job a great job at limiting Texas’ top shooters and causing them to shoot under their season average.
One are the Mountaineers have to improve on is turnovers. They turned the ball over 17 times and this led to many Longhorns’ points. West Virginia cannot have this many against Stanford because they will definitely take advantage of the turnovers and turn them into huge points. If West Virginia can keep the turnovers to a minimum then they will have a better chance of keeping the game close.
The two players West Virginia must watch out for are twins, Nnemkadi and Chiney Ogqumike. Nnemkadi leads Stanford in scoring and rebounding with 22 points per game and 10.5 rebounds per game. Chiney is right behind her sister with 15.6 ppg and 10.2 rpg, however she is a deadlier shooter than her sister with a shooting percentage of 58.8%. The Mountaineers have got to contain these two and make them take shots from beyond the arc. Nnemkadi is only shooting 44.4% from three point range and Chiney hasn’t taken a single shot from downtown. West Virginia has to force her to take those shots in hopes of keeping her off balance.
The Mountaineers definitely have their work cut out for them and they will have to play like they did against the Longhorns and then some if they want to come away with the win or at least keep the game close. Tipoff is at 7:15 on ESPN2 and ESPN3.
Prediction: WVU-65 Stanford-76
WVU Player of the Game: Taylor Palmer 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
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