Ali goes off

Senior co-captain Madina Ali scored a career high 32 points while adding 10 rebounds to help the sixth ranked mountaineers defeat the Syracuse Orange 70-61.

With the win the mountaineers not only extend their home win streak to 29 games, but they also get some much wanted revenge against a Syracuse team that beat them by 19 the last time they met. The win improves WVU to 17-1 and 4-1 in Big East play while the loss drops Syracuse to 13-4 and 1-3 in Big East play.

The mountaineers needed all 32 of Madina Ali’s points, as she and Liz Repella were the only Mountaineers to score in double figures. Perhaps no points were bigger than the three pointer Ali hit with 3:48 remaining to put WVU up 6, a margin Syracuse could not come back from. “When Madina has her feet set, I give her the green light right there when her feet set” said coach Carey.

Coach Carey was also happy to see the team bounce back after their first loss of the season, “They came back and fought hard, I told them after the game we made mistakes I’m not gonna even go over them. I was proud of them; they came out and played with a lot of heart, we did what we had to do to win.”

Madina Ali was certainly the star of the show tonight however. Liz Repella, the only other mountaineer in double digits with 12 points said it was Ali who carried the team on her back, “she was everywhere tonight, everywhere. Rebounding, scoring, she hit a three, she was doing everything and umm wow she played an awesome game today and she really picked us up and put us on her shoulders.”

The 32 points was the first time Ali has ever scored 30 or more points in a game and she said coming into this game she had a chip on her shoulder “ Coach Carey really told us that you know we had to go out there and prove something not only to the fans but to prove it to ourselves that we can do this and we are capable of making shots.”

On the defensive side of things, things were not a one-man effort but rather a team effort. The mountaineers came together to hold Syracuse to 39% from the field and 27% from three.

Syracuse’s leading scorer Kayla Alexander was held to just 4 points in 22 minuets. Syracuse’s leading scorer Elashier Hall finished the game with a team high 20 points while also grabbing 7 rebounding.

The mountaineers will take on Marshall next Wednesday in Charleston, tipoff is set for 5:30