West Virginia defense leads to 53-32 win over Marquette

West Virginia won 16 games last season before losing to Marquette by 15 points at home.

This year, the Mountaineers got their revenge on the Golden Eagles, defeating them 53–32 Saturday night at the Coliseum.

West Virginia's tough defense seemed to frustrate Marquette throughout the night. The Golden Eagles only made 10 shots, shooting 18.2 percent from the floor. The Mountaineers blocked 10 shots, led by junior center Asya Bussie, who had seven.

"The blocks were there," said Bussie after the game. "They were coming into the paint so I had to block it to help.

"I felt like we had a lot of energy in the first and second half, and that's what we've been focusing on."

Redshirt sophomore Christal Caldwell led WVU with 20 points, while grabbing seven rebounds – second next to Bussie. It was Caldwell's ninth-straight game scoring in double figures.

"Christal, she's been playing well," said West Virginia head coach Mike Carey. "First half, she hit the offensive boards well. We need her to continue to do that … we need somebody else to give us some scoring from the perimeter. That opens up our post a little bit more."

Marquette relied much of its offense on offensive rebounds, grabbing 19 off the glass. But, they only had two assists in the game.

Luckily for WVU, the shots weren't falling for their opponent. Marquette only scored 12 second-chance points off of their offensive rebounds.

The Mountaineers got outrebounded 47-42 and committed 19 turnovers, but were able to take advantage off of 21 Marquette turnovers of its own.

Still, Carey knows his team needs to play smarter and continue to grow.

"What hurt us once again was turnovers and offensive rebounds," he said. "Our guards weren't rotating down (or) blocking out our man. They're post had a bunch of offensive rebounds, and it's not our center's fault. Our rotation is not getting physical down there and blocking out."

Katherine Plouffe led the Golden Eagles with nine points and nine rebounds, while 6-foot-5-inch freshman center Chelsie Butler followed with eight points and eight rebounds.

But, the Mountaineers were too strong on defense to get consistent looks on offense for Marquette.

"West Virginia plays incredible defense. Their denial completely took us out of our rhythm," said Marquette head coach Terri Mitchell.

"We talked about this game. And the two things we talked about is, we had to address our turnovers and rebounding.

"I thought we did a good job rebounding, but when you look at our 19 offensive rebounds, and you only have 12 points (off of them), it didn't hurt them at all."

WVU freshman forward Jess Harlie led the team with four steals, and sophomore guard Taylor Palmer added 10 points off the bench.

The Mountaineers got off to a fast 6-0 start, with a 3-pointer from Caldwell and 3-point play by Harlee.

WVU's early lead was pushed to 12-4 halfway through the first half thanks to some nifty ball movement by the Mountaineers and a layup by Bussie.

Palmer had two 3-pointers to put the Mountaineers up 25-12 with three minutes to play. Bussie also blocked two Golden Eagle attempts in the final minutes.

Marquette ended the first half on a 6-2 run, cutting the lead to just nine, 27-18.

The Mountaineers never trailed in the game.