West Virginia Faces Lehigh In First Round Of NCAA Tournament

The Mountaineers received a No. 4 seed for this year's NCAA Tournament

West Virginia received a No. 4 seed for the 2021 NCAA Tournament after finishing its season 21-6 (13-5 Big 12). The Mountaineers will open tournament play on Sunday, March 21, with a contest against No. 13-seeded Lehigh (10-5, 7-5 Patriot League) at Bill Greehey Arena in San Antonio. 

This will be the second time the Mountaineers and Mountain Hawks have met. The two teams last squared off on Dec. 27, 1999, when Lehigh cinched a 89-73 victory over WVU.

No. 17 West Virginia finished tied for second in the Big 12 after the regular season and earned a No. 2 seed in the 2021 Big 12 Championship. The Mountaineers advanced to the Championship title game where they suffered a 26-point loss against No. 1 Baylor.

This year, Lehigh finished fifth in the Patriot League at the end of the regular season. However, a conference tournament victory punched the Mountain Hawks' ticket to the NCAA Tournament as an automatic qualifier.

West Virginia head coach Mike Carey said that Lehigh's offense will pose a challenge for the Mountaineers. The Mountain Hawks are shooting 34.3% from beyond the arc and are averaging 9.8 threes per game.

"They have a lot of shooters," Carey said. "They run a lot of stuff... the curls and the flares. We'll have to get out and guard them."

Lehigh is led by sophomore guard Frannie Hottinger, who posts an impressive 14.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. She leads the Mountain Hawks in both categories.

Senior guard Mary Clougherty and junior forward Emma Grothaus each average double digits in scoring, at 12.1 and 11.1 points per game respectively.

The Mountaineers' offense is led by redshirt senior guard Kysre Gondrezick, who averages 19.9 points per game. Sophomore guard Kirsten Deans and sophomore forward Esmery Martinez are each putting up 13.6 points per game for the Mountaineers.

Carey, however, believes the Mountaineers offense has room for improvement entering Sunday's contest. 

"We've got to shoot the ball better," said Carey. "Our spacing has got to get better. Our spacing was not good the whole tournament. We won two games, but that's why we didn't score. We were scoring in the 70's and 80's, and then all of the sudden, we get to the tournament and were scoring in the 50's and 60's."

"I don't like where we are offensively," Carey continued. "Everybody's chasing the ball, the spacing is not good, the movement and the rotation is not good. We really need to iron that out in practice." 

The Mountaineers and Mountainhawks tip-off their Round of 64 contest at 8 p.m. EST on ESPNU.

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