The no. 14 Mountaineers (12-3) boast a roster of seven seniors, the school's largest senior class ever, and four juniors.,”The Marquette women's basketball team will be playing a mirror image of themselves tomorrow night in West Virginia. If, that is, the game were being played one year ago.
The No. 14 Mountaineers (12-3) boast a roster of seven seniors, the school's largest senior class ever, and four juniors. West Virginia is also returning all five starters from last year's 21-11 squad.
"Marquette had a veteran-laden team last year and that certainly helped out as far as sustaining a level of play and a certain level of intensity throughout the season because not only had they been there before but they'd been there before together," said West Virginia head coach Mike Carey.
West Virginia comes into its game against Marquette with four players averaging double figures in points, a luxury Marquette has not has not come close to this season.
"I'm sitting there looking at it like, boy I remember the days when we had four players averaging 10 or more," Marquette assistant coach Michelle Nason said.
Nason added that there are certain things that are different when preparing this year's young team (six freshmen) versus last year's veteran roster.
"This year we do scouting reports just a little bit longer, because you have to explain everything to the younger team,"Nason said. "This year we've got to break everything down."
Marquette's youngsters have responded to the challenge thus far with a 9-6 overall record (1-1 Big East), including close losses to No. 23 Arkansas and No. 5 Rutgers.
"We don't really take moral victories, but throughout the year it just seems like we were gelling a little better, playing each opponent a little better and then we play No. 23 Arkansas and fall just short, and then we play a little bit better against No. 5 Rutgers and fall just a little short, but at some point we're going to finish off one of those games," Nason said.
The Mountaineers are well aware Marquette has played tough against ranked opponents.
"They're capable of competing with everybody in the country especially with a guard like (Krystal) Ellis, because there aren't too many guards who can score from three phases, finishing around the basket, midrange and the three with consistency," Carey said.
Ellis is averaging a team best 19.6 points per game this season and is shooting nearly 45 percent from the field.
West Virginia has lost only three games this season, with two of them coming against Connecticut and Tennessee, the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked teams in the country, respectively.
Olayinka Sanni leads the Mountaineers' quartet of seniors in the starting lineup with 17.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Wednesday night's game will be a clash between a stifling Mountaineer defense allowing just 53.1 ppg, and the run-and-gun offense of Marquette which scores 69.1 ppg.
West Virginia will be the first of two ranked opponents Marquette will face this week as the Golden Eagles travel to play No. 23 DePaul on Saturday.
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