Box Score

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Eastern Kentucky trailed by only eight at halftime, but couldn’t overcome a 12-2 West Virginia run to open the second half and lost 60-40 tonight in Morgantown.

A pair of true freshmen led the Lady Colonels (4-4). Lexington native Brittany Coles finished with a career-best 14 points. Freshman Shakeyia Colyer also scored a career-high 10 points. Asya Bussie led the Mountaineers (8-1) with 19 points.

EKU committed only eight more turnovers than West Virginia (28-20), but was outscored off turnovers 31-10. WVU entered the game averaging 70.4 points per game, but didn’t score its 60th point against the Lady Colonels until 12 seconds remained in the game.

West Virginia scored the first 18 points of the game while Eastern Kentucky missed their first nine shots from the field and didn’t score until the 11:20 mark of the first half. Sarah Fraser-Jones got EKU on the board with a three-pointer as the shot clock expired.

Ali scored eight of WVU’s first 18 points.

A three-pointer by Coles and an eight-foot jumper by Colyer brought Eastern Kentucky to within nine, 26-17, with 3:14 remaining in the first half. The Lady Colonels got as close as eight on three occasions, including a driving jumper in the lane by Colyer with 6.7 seconds left in the first half. The Mountaineers led 31-23 at the break.

Coles knocked down three three-pointers in the first half in four attempts, and scored 11 points. EKU was 4-for-10 from deep in the opening half.

Both teams committed 13 first half turnovers, but WVU out-scored Eastern 14-6 off miscues. West Virginia out-rebounded the Lady Colonels 22-12 and scored 10 points off nine offensive boards.

West Virginia, began the second half on a 12-2 run, including scoring the first seven points, and led by double figures the rest of the way.

EKU out-rebounded the Mountaineers 17-16 in the second half.

The Lady Colonels will play their second home game of the season on Friday. Davis & Elkins College will visit McBrayer arena for a 6 p.m. tip-off.

Notes
Eastern Kentucky entered the game with a four-game winning streak, its longest since winning 15 straight on its way to the NCAA tournament in 2005.

West Virginia is receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 and the Coaches’ Poll. The Mountaineers are within two spots of the top-25 in the Coaches’ Poll.

The Lady Colonels lost to West Virginia for the first time in series history. EKU had been 2-0 against the Mountaineers.

Freshman Brittany Coles set career-highs for three-point field goals (4) and points (14).

Freshman Shakeyia Colyer beat her previous scoring best of two with six points in the first half. She finished with 10 points.

Eastern Kentucky limited West Virginia’s leading scorer Liz Repella (14.9 ppg) to eight points, including three in the second half.

West Virginia ended Alex Jones’ streak of two consecutive double-doubles.

EKU was out-rebounded for only the second time this season.

West Virginia improved to 48-3 all-time in home non-conference games under head coach Mike Carey.

Freshman Kaiti Cochren went to the free throw line for the first time in her career and knocked down both attempts.

Junior Talisha Davis needs 72 more points to reach 1,000 for her collegiate career. She scored 859 points in two seasons at Lincoln Trail College.