photo by: Benjamin Powell

WVU forward Kierra Wheeler goes up for a shot during the Mountaineers’ home game against Texas Tech on Wednesday inside the Hope Coliseum.

MORGANTOWN — Bailey Maupin’s gradual climb through the college ranks took a major step forward Wednesday. So, too, did No. 17 Texas Tech, which erased a six-point deficit in the fourth quarter to knock off West Virginia, 71-66, inside the Hope Coliseum.

“Our program hasn’t won here in over a decade, I think,” Texas Tech head coach Krista Gerlich said. “So, yeah, I think it’s huge for us.”

The Red Raiders (17-0, 4-0 Big 12), who were picked 13th in the league’s preseason poll, took over sole possession of first place in the Big 12 standings with the win, their first in Morgantown since January 2015.

Maupin’s role in the win was both as a scorer and then she came up with a critical steal in the final seconds. Following Jalynn Bristow’s offensive rebound, Maupin nailed an open 3-pointer with 1:50 remaining that gave Texas Tech the lead for good, 62-61.

With 15 seconds left, she stole the ball from WVU guard Gia Cooke to help preserve the victory.

“I’ve kind of been through all the steps at Texas Tech,” said Maupin, who finished 8 of 15 shooting for 27 points. “We’ve had good years. We’ve had bad years and we’ve had everything in between. This team is really super special and we’re going to do some special things.”

So far, so good. The Red Raiders are now looking down at 15 other teams in the Big 12 standings and are nationally ranked for the first time since 2012.

“They’ve taken a big step, no question,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said.

The Mountaineers (13-3, 3-1), meanwhile, missed a major opportunity.

After going 10 of 13 shooting as a team to take a 53-50 lead heading into the fourth quarter, WVU was held to just 3 of 19 from the floor in the fourth quarter. Making matters worse, the Mountaineers missed six of 12 free throws, too, in the final quarter.

“We just made a lot of mistakes,” said WVU guard Jordan Harrison, who finished with 22 points and five assists. It was her first 20-point game of the season. “They sped us up just a little bit. Honestly, the mistakes we made were on us.”

The mistakes went beyond the fourth quarter. Texas Tech, which finished with 20 turnovers, still went point-for-point with the Mountaineers in the first half. The Red Raiders also held WVU leading scorer, Gia Cooke, to just six points on 2 of 9 shooting. Cooke’s second basket of the game didn’t come until the final seconds, a 3-pointer that really had no impact on the outcome.

“We just tried to make her take contested shots as much as possible,” Gerlich said. “We didn’t want her getting to the rim. She got a couple of open looks from three, but we just tried to make it difficult on her. We wanted them to play in crowds. For the most part, I thought we did a good job of that.”

WVU, which finds itself in a logjam in second place in the Big 12, will continue to face a healthy dose of top-ranked competition. No. 11 Iowa State is up next on Sunday, before WVU returns home to face No. 13 TCU next week.

“I thought we had every opportunity to win the game,” Kellogg said. “Credit to Tech, they made the plays, especially late in the fourth quarter. We missed lay-ups, missed free throws, just missed opportunities.

“We have to learn from it, because it doesn’t get any easier for us.”

Carter McCray added 15 points for the Mountaineers, but the forward went just one of four from the foul line in the fourth quarter. WVU forward Kierra Wheeler added 11 points and nine rebounds, but also missed two free throws early in the fourth quarter when WVU was holding on to a 58-53 lead.

“We struggled a little bit and made too many mistakes,” McCray said. “I feel like it was us. It wasn’t really them. We just made too many things go wrong that we had control of.”