WVU Stumbles vs. Oklahoma State
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MORGANTOWN - It had to be a hangover from the bitter one-point loss at to Baylor on Saturday as it listlessly went through the motions and suffered 68-61 defeat to Oklahoma State, the loss possibly costing them the fourth place in the conference standings and a double bye in the conference tournament.
Cach Mark Kellogg said on his pregame radio interview that he thought his team was ready to have a bounce-back game at the Gallagher Iba Coliseum.
"I was impressed with the way they responded," he said of the short time for practice before flying to Stillwater, but whatever he saw in his team wasn't there when they went out on the floor.
WVU was coming off a difficult overtime loss to Kansas State and then heart wrenching one-point loss to Baylor.
Right from the start, the Cowgirls showed their game plan, banging the ball inside for a layup from Hana Gusters. In fact, the first three baskets by OSU were listed as layups.
There was hope when Jayla Hemingway, Lauren Fields and JJ Quinerly made three straight WVU 3-point baskets canned an early 3 to give WVU a 2-point lead but Oklahoma State simply shrugged that off, as they did with the Mountaineer pressure all night and each one with a score of their own.
It was a low-scoring, low-energy first quarter with the last say going to Oklahoma State as they scored the final six points to take a 16-12 lead.
The Mountaineers, who lead the conference in steals and turnovers and were coming off three consecutive games against conference contenders when they turned the opponents over 24 or more times, forced only 4 turnovers.
And that didn't change much as the game went on. In fact, WVU forced only 15 turnovers and actually were outscored significantly on points off turnovers, 20-12.
The formula was working for the Cowgirls and they stuck to it in the second quarter as they outscored the Mountaineers, 19-14.
And sometimes they say you'd rather be lucky than good, but Oklahoma State was both. Their ball handling was solid all night and they up the game with 36 points in the paint, more than half their total.
But all their points didn't come in the paint as the half ended with Anna Gret Asi swishing on from nearly three-quarters court to allow Oklahoma State to go into the locker room with a 35-26 lead.
Asi ended the game tying Jordan Harrison of WVU for the top scoring honors with 22 points, a career high.
You expected WVU to really turn up the pressure but they couldn't do it in the second half, always a step slow in their rotation.
Only Harrison seemed capable of putting it into overdrive as she took over in the third quarter and scored 13 points, but again it didn't matter as OSU again outscored WVU, 24-22.
WVU tried to make a game of it in the fourth quarter and did cut into the lead, getting it down to four points, but Harrison fouled out and Quinerly never found her rhythm. The Mountaineers' star guard ended the night with 17 points on 8 or 19 shooting but was just 1 for 9 from 3-point range and while she had five rebounds she could manage only one assist.
So WVU carries a three-game losing streak into Senior Night at home in the Coliseum on Saturday to end the regular season.