Villanova ends WVU's 21-game home winning streak with 81-59 victory

Dec. 1—MORGANTOWN — West Virginia's string of 21 consecutive wins inside the Hope Coliseum ended Monday night, and that's the very least of concerns at the moment for WVU women's head coach Mark Kellogg.

Villanova, behind career performances from both Jasmine Brascoe and Brynn McCurry, dismantled the 25th-ranked Mountaineers, 81-59, handing WVU its largest loss under Kellogg.

"They did everything better than we did, to be completely honest, " Kellogg said. "It's a feeling that we haven't had in this building. I don't know if I've ever felt this way.

"Really disappointed in this one. (Villanova) is a good basketball team, but I think we should be better than what we showed tonight."

BOX SCORE WVU (6-2) has now lost two straight and both of those losses could be pinned on its defense. Villanova shot 52.4 % (33 of 63) from the floor, with Brascoe going for 24 and McCurry adding 21. Ohio State shot 48 % in its 83-81 victory last week in The Bahamas.

"We've got to fix quite a few things, defensively, obviously being one of those, " Kellogg said. "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 so much the loss to the Wildcats (6-2), who came into the game having lost to both Fairfield and Princeton earlier this season, it was more about how WVU lost this one.

Villanova blitzed right through the Mountaineers' full-court pressure to the point where Kellogg eventually had to call it off and try something else.

"They were just kind of picking us apart, " was the way WVU point guard Jordan Harrison explained 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 times, many of them coming from passes that were either tipped or intercepted. One inbounds pass from under the basket sailed out to Meg Bulger. The only problem with that is Bulger is now a TV analyst and hasn't played for the Mountaineers since 2008.

WVU was held to just 33 % (19 of 58) shooting from the floor, with a bulk of that coming from close misses around the rim. The Mountaineers finished just 12 of 37 on lay-up attempts. Those misses included shots that went completely over the rim, didn't make it to the rim or were shot so hard that the ball came off the backboard without hitting the rim.

"We didn't get a great whistle and I thought we were looking for fouls instead of trying to finish, " Kellogg said. "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 individual scoring averages before the end of the first half and went on to score more than half of Villanova's points. The two combined to score 35 points in the first half, the same amount of points WVU had as a team.

"She's a really good player, but we did everything we weren't supposed to do, " Kellogg said of Bascoe, an all-Big East freshman selection last 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 only offense came from guard Gia Cooke, who finished with 20 points. It was her third consecutive game with at least 20 points.

"It was just being aggressive, " Cooke said. "The game plan told us they could guard, but a lot of those baseline drives were going to be there."

WVU didn't generate much offense otherwise. Jordan Harrison didn't make a shot until the third quarter and finished 3 of 12 from the floor. Sydney Shaw was 2 of 7 shooting and finished with a season-low five points.

Kierra Wheeler was the only other WVU player in double figures. She finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.