No. 6 West Virginia beats Central Connecticut St

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Freshman Brooke Hampton scored 11 points and No. 6 West Virginia overcame a sluggish first half to beat Central Connecticut State 63-37 on Sunday.

The Mountaineers (14-0) extended the best start in school history and improved their school-record home winning streak to 27 games.

But West Virginia needed a strong second half, outscoring the Blue Devils 40-17 after leading by just three at halftime.

Liz Repella and Ayana Dunning added 10 points each for West Virginia. Sarah Miles had seven points and a career-high nine steals in her first start since missing seven games with a knee injury.

Repella was the only West Virginia starter in double figures. West Virginia's bench outscored the Blue Devils 35-12. Leading scorer Madina Ali was limited to 2 points on 0-of-7 shooting from the floor.

Kerianne Dugan scored 11 points for Central Connecticut State (7-5).

Early on, West Virginia played like its focus was on the Big East portion of the schedule starting Wednesday night at Seton Hall.

The Mountaineers needed a late rally like they got on Thursday night in a 62-53 win at St. Bonaventure. West Virginia trailed 20-15 at halftime against the Bonnies.

Against the Blue Devils, West Virginia went without a field goal over the final 7:29 of the first half. The Mountaineers shot 27 percent from the floor in the half, committed 14 turnovers and led 23-20 at halftime.

The Mountaineers fared much better after that. For the game, West Virginia got 21 steals and scored 31 points off 34 Central Connecticut State turnovers.

West Virginia, whose No. 6 ranking is the best in school history, improved to 60-3 against nonconference opponents in Morgantown.