WVU guard Linda Stepney poured in a career high 17 points to lead the Mountaineers to another win over a Top 20 team in the road Wednesday at Iowa State.
By Bob Hertzel
For The Exponent Telegram
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — All season long, Mike Carey had preached a message to his point guard, Linda Stepney.
It was a simple message, simply that he wanted her to attempt to deliver more scoring from her position than she had been doing.
A point guard’s basic responsibility is to set up other players, but Stepney was doing that to the detriment of her own offense and that was making matters more difficult for the team as defenders could play loosely off her and sag in on Asya Bussie.
You looked at her stats and they showed that only once all season had she taken more than five shots, that being against Duquesne when she recorded her season high of 10 points on seven shots taken.
“I’ve been saying this all year, she has offensive skills to score,” Carey said Wednesday night after Stepney finally put those skills on display. “She just wouldn’t do it. Tonight, she looked to score.”
The result may have been a defining moment in what is shaping up to be a big-time season for West Virginia’s women’s basketball team.
Playing at Iowa State, where visitors seldom win, the Mountaineers claimed a 73-59 victory over the nation’s No. 11 team and Stepney was the key to WVU’s second road upset of a Top 20 team this season.
Stepney scored a season and career high of 17 points on 4-of-9 shooting, hitting 4-of-5 3-point shots she attempted. She had hit only four 3-pointers in 16 tries all season heading into the Iowa State game…
