Dec. 15, 2003
NU-WVU Game Notes in PDF Format
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EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern will close out a four-game homestand on Tuesday when it hosts the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Wildcats (3-3) are looking to break .500 before an equally long road stretch that will conclude the nonconference portion of the 2003-04 schedule. The remaining games in December are at Illinois-Chicago on the 18th, at Southern Illinois on the 20th and at the Loyola Marymount Tournament from Dec. 28-29. Big Ten play opens in January for the 'Cats when they host Michigan on the 4th.
NU enters Tuesday's noon game having dropped the championship game of the Mildred and Roger L. White Invitational to visiting Eastern Michgan 70-61. For the second time this season, junior guard Samantha McComb hit 22 points in a game, a record for the co-captain. Ifeoma Okonkwo added 12 points while Alex Mueller chipped in 11 for the 'Cats.
West Virginia is 6-2 entering this week's games and is 25-5 all-time against nonconference foes under head coach Mike Carey's tenure. WVU has won 19 of the last 21 non-conference games dating back to Carey's first season.
Five Mountaineers are averaging double figures and they are led by senior sharpshooting guard Kate Bulger who averages 17.1 points and is shooting 48.1% (26-54) from three-point range. She was third nationally last year in three-point field goal percentage and is currently seventh in the NCAA with 3.7 3 pointers made per game.
Junior point guard Yolanda Paige leads the BIG EAST with a 5.86 assists-per-game average. In 2002-03 she was sixth nationally with a 7.1 assists per game average and was a Nancy Lieberman Award (best point guard in the nation) finalist.
Tuesday is also Field Trip Day at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Featured in the morning's activities is an address by former US Olympic gold medal-winning basketball coach Nell Fortner and during halftime, the Jesse White Tumblers will perform.
Fortner, the former head coach of the Women's National Team Program, led Team USA to gold at the 1998 World Championships as well as to a gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympic games. In three years, she coached her teams to a 101-14 overall record, the most wins of any coach in Women's USA Basketball history.