Mountaineers look for third straight win against Louisville

After sneaking out of South Florida with a 55-52 win against USF Wednesday, the West Virginia women's basketball team looks to win its third league game in a row Saturday against No. 12 Louisville.

The Mountaineers (16-6, 6-3 Big East) are currently in a five-way tie for third place in the Big East conference.

Standing in their way are the Cardinals (17-5, 6-3 Big East), who are coming off a 25-point loss to DePaul. They have not lost two games in a row all season, but hold an 8-5 record in road games as opposed to 9-0 at home. In conference games, the Cardinals have a 2-3 road record.

Louisville is lead by sophomore point guard Shoni Schimmel, who averages 13.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Schimmel had 14 points in the Cardinals loss to DePaul.

Senior guard Becky Burke is averaging 11.6 points and 3.0 rebounds per game, and freshman guard Bria Smith is averaging 10.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

The ability of Louisville's guards to get to the basket can cause problems for a lot of teams. The Mountaineers ability to contain the guards and keep them on the perimeter will be tested throughout the game.

The hot hand for the Mountaineers is still redshirt sophomore guard Christal Caldwell, who is second on the team in rebounds, averaging 6.8 per game. She is also second on the team behind sophomore guard Taylor Palmer, averaging 11.5 points per game.

Caldwell has scored double-figures in each of the last 10 games for WVU.

Against South Florida, redshirt junior center Ayana Dunning possibly had her best game of the season thus far, scoring 15 points and grabbing a career-high 17 rebounds against the Bulls.

Dunning is averaging 7.1 points and a team-high 8.3 rebounds per game and also leads the team form the free-throw line at 83 percent.

The combination of Dunning and Bussie will have an impact for the Mountaineers to continue to be successful.

Even though the two can't always be on the floor at the same time, their production in replace of one another needs to stay efficient.

The two upperclassmen cause tough matchup problems for opposing defenses, especially against teams that heavily rely on their guard play.

The Cardinals are a young, talented team like the Mountaineers, with just two seniors: Burke and current inactive forward Monique Reid, who is averaging a team-high 5.3 rebounds per game, although she has played in only eight games this season.

Reid is also averaging 13.1 points per game, when she has played.

The Mountaineers will also have to keep an eye on junior Asia Taylor, who scored 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the team's loss to DePaul.

The 6-foot-1 forward from Columbus, Ohio, is only averaging 4.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. So,

outrebounding and getting good positioning on her will be a key in the game.

The Mountaineers are 5-3 in the all-time series against the Cardinals and have never lost to them in the Coliseum, going 3-0.