ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The West Virginia women's basketball team picked an awful time to go cold as it managed only 17 second-half points in a 64-46 loss to Vanderbilt last night in an NCAA tournament second-round game at The Pit.

Vanderbilt (25-8) will play the winner of a game tonight between No. 1 seed Maryland (31-3) and No. 8 seed Nebraska (21-11) in a Sweet 16 match-up Saturday in Spokane, Wash. The Commodores are in the Sweet 16 for the third time in five years, but they have failed to reach the Elite 8 in their previous two trips. The Commodores scored the first five points of the game and pushed it to 11-2 on a jumper by Christina Wirth with 16:25 to play.

But Meg Bulger hit a 3-pointer that seemed to settle the Mountaineers as that sparked a 14-5 run. She hit another 3-pointer with 7:49 to play that tied the score, 16-16. And after a layup by Vanderbilt's Jennifer Risper, Mountaineers senior Chakhia Cole hit a 3-pointer to give West Virginia its first lead, 19-18, with 7:09 to play in the half.

But the Commodores methodically built a 10-point lead in the first 10 minutes of the second half and the Mountaineers simply couldn't muster a comeback.

West Virginia made just 7 of 30 shots in the second half (23.3 percent) and was outrebounded, 40-22. Those numbers aren't a surprise because it was clear that the Commodores, who had a much easier first-round game than the Mountaineers, had fresher legs down the stretch.

"I was impressed with our level of conditioning, we wanted to wear them down and we did that," Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb said.

It was a disappointing end for the seven Mountaineers seniors who led the team to 81 wins and two NCAA tournament appearances over the past four years. The group included four 1,000-point scorers in Bulger, Cole, Olyinka Sanni and LaQuita Owens.

Sanni led the Mountaineers with 14 points last night and Bulger, who starred at Oakland Catholic, added 13 points and six rebounds.