No. 24 West Virginia women’s basketball faced a must-win opportunity on the road on Tuesday night.
After dropping two close contests to ranked opponents last week, the Mountaineers hit the road to close out the final week of the regular season, controlling their own destiny,
Win twice, and West Virginia would clinch the coveted top-four seed in the Big 12 Tournament and earn a double bye. Lose, and the Mountaineers would be in serious jeopardy of falling out the top four in the Big 12 standings.
For West Virginia, they were coming off back-to-back games where turnovers were an issue on offense. On Tuesday night, turnovers once again were a glaring issue, while WVU’s pressure defense was easily handled by the Cowgirls as WVU dropped their third straight, 68-61.
West Virginia started out the game strong, leading in the early minutes, but they wouldn’t lead after the 4:37 mark of the first half, with the Cowgirls leading for the remainder of the game.
The Mountaineers would not score for the final 4:37 of the first half, and struggles on offense would be a continuing trend for the Mountaineers.
In the second quarter, the Mountaineers kept OSU’s lead under five for the first four minutes of the quarter, but the Cowgirls went on a 6-0 run, to lead by nine with 3:14 to play. Over the final 2:04, OSU’s Anna Gret Asi scored nine points, including a buzzer beater from beyond half court to send Oklahoma State to halftime with a 35-26 lead.
WVU struggled after a hot start from the field, especially from three. WVU started 3-for-7 from three in the first quarter, but would go 3-for-19 the remainder of the game. This included making just one three-pointer in the second, third, and fourth quarters, respectively.
JJ Quinerly led WVU in scoring with 11 points in the first half, but was quiet in the second half, scoring eight points, and going 3-for-8 from the field.
The bigger story outside of their offensive execution might have been West Virginia’s execution on the defensive end.
Coming into Tuesday, WVU ranked first in the Big 12, forcing just over 24 turnovers per game, while they also were first in steals with over 14 per game. WVU finished the game with 19 turnovers forced, and nine steals. Conversely, Oklahoma State turned over the Mountaineers 15 times, which created 20 points, compared to WVU’s 12 points off turnovers.
Oklahoma State also made it a point to get the ball inside. The Cowgirls had 36 points in the paint, and got to there free throw 20 times, making 16.
WVU was in foul trouble for the majority of the night, with Quinerly and Jordan Harrison each having to sit for periods of time in the second half. Harrison had a team-high 22 points, but scored only two points in the fourth quarter after scoring 13 in the third.
WVU trailed by 11 going into the fourth quarter, but neither team wanted to take the game over early on in the fourth. Both teams scored a combined eight points over the first six-plus minutes. WVU scored the first four points of the half in the opening 55 seconds, cutting Oklahoma State’s lead to seven. They had multiple chances to get it under seven, but could never do so.
Baylor, who came into the night, one game behind WVU, beat Cincinnati on Tuesday. This means both WVU and Baylor are tied in the Big 12 standings at 11-6, but after Saturday’s loss to the Lady Bears, Baylor holds the head-to-head advantage at 2-0.
