January 6, 1999

Traveling to Morgantown, W.V., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Villanova women's basketball team won its second straight Big East Conference contest by beating West Virginia, 71-56, behind a career-high 24 points from redshirt sophomore guard Lauren Pellicane. With the victory, the Wildcats evened their record at 6-6 overall and 2-2 in Big East play.

Villanova jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the first 5:22 of the first half, with six points coming from junior forward Jenea Skeeters. The Mountaineers rallied to cut the lead to 23-20 at he 6:42 mark, before the Wildcats went on 16-8 run to end the half and take a 39-28 lead into intermission. Led by 11 points from both Pellicane and sophomore center Brandi Barnes, Villanova shot 65 percent in the first half on 17-of-26 shooting.

In the second half, West Virginia (5-7, 1-4) would only get to as close as eight, 47-39 at the 12:32 mark, before the Wildcats again took over and cruised to a 71-56 victory. Villanova, which never trailed in the contest, finished the game shooting 54 percent from the field (27-of-50) and seven-for-12 from three-point range for 58.3 percent shooting.

In addition to her career-high 24 points, Pellicane also tied a career-high with six three pointers (six-of-nine). Finishing in double figures as well for the Wildcats were Barnes who posted 13 points and Skeeters who tallied 12. Senior point guard Shanette Lee scored five points and added nine assists and four steals.

Leading the Mountaineers in a losing effort was forward Maria Tchobanova who scored 18 points on eight-of-10 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds. Brandi Batch (14 points) and Rebecca Burbridge (10 points ) also scored in double figures for West Virginia.

Villanova will get back into action on Thursday, January 7, playing host to the No. 13 Scarlet Knights of Rutgers at 7:30 p.m.