WVU Mountaineer Sports: Basketball | Football | News |WVU Downs North Florida 86-30

With four players scoring in double figures, the West Virginia women's basketball team downed North Florida, 86-30, collecting its fourth-straight win Saturday at the WVU Coliseum.

 The Mountaineers (7-2) held the Ospreys (2-6) to only three points for the first 19 minutes of the game, setting a Coliseum record of fewest points in a half as the teams entered the locker room with WVU leading 41-9 at the break.  

"The first 15 minutes, we came out and played hard and didn't give them anything. Yaya (Dunning) and Asya (Bussie) played hard. Jess (Harlee) played hard," coach Mike Carey said. "We switched well, we were active, we got after it, we showed well on ball picks and it caught them by surprise a little bit and they turned it over a lot."

Sophomore guard Taylor Palmer was WVU's scoring leader as she had 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including four 3-pointers. Ayana Dunning followed with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Akilah Bethel and Brooke Hampton each put up 10 points off the bench, each draining a pair of threes. Hampton also dished out eight assists.

North Florida's Destinee Smith was the Ospreys' leading scorer with eight points and Fabiola Josil and Brittany Kirkland rounded out the top three scorers with six points each.

WVU shot over 50 percent from the field for the first time this season as it went 52.7 percent, going 29-for-55. The Mountaineers also recorded a season-high 3-point field goal percentage of 64.3 percent (9-14) and converted 76 percent (19-25) of free throws. North Florida was limited to a mere four field goals in the first half, three of which came in the final minute, totaling 26.2 percent (11-42) for the entire game. The Ospreys shot 16.7 percent (2-12) from 3-point range and earned six points off free throws, all in the second half, shooting 46.2 percent (6-13).

Defensively, Dunning led all players with nine rebounds, helping WVU to a 42-21 rebound advantage over North Florida. She also grabbed three steals and had a block. Jess Harlee chipped in another three steals and joined four others in pulling down four rebounds. The Mountaineers forced 28 turnovers, while limiting their own to 17.

"Yaya played hard," Carey said. "She has a lot of confidence right now and is playing hard. She rebounds well for us and now she is starting to score. If we can continue to get that, that is going to be great. I really wanted to go with a little bit more quickness and more defense and bring offense off the bench and that is what Yaya has given us and Brooke Hampton gave us some offense off the bench the last couple of games, which is good to see."

WVU looks to extend its four-game win streak, Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. at Duquesne.

"Duquesne is tough to play there. They are tough to play and they are good. I just told the team that they are a good basketball team and they would love to beat us," Carey explained. "They have all their starters back, all their scoring, all their post and we are the ones that have got everybody new. We have to go up there and win. It is going to be a tough game. We are going to have to stay focused for 40 minutes."