MORGANTOWN — For the third straight season, the West Virginia women’s basketball team travels to Fort Worth, Texas, to open Big 12 play at TCU at Ed & Ray Schollmaier Arena.
WVU is coming off an 84-32 win over Niagara on Saturday, where senior guard Katrina Pardee scored a career-high 28 points for the second straight game, also tying her career high with six 3-pointers and earning Big 12 Player of the Week honors.
Freshman forward Kari Niblack had 14 points and 14 rebounds for her second career double-double, while senior forward Naomi Davenport netted 11 points and 14 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.
The Mountaineers have also won six of their last seven games.Tipoff for the TCU is slated for 7:30 p.m.
“We’re excited,” WVU coach Mike Carey said. “They have a lot of players returning from last year, and they had a good season last year. We know this is going to be a really tough game.”
The Mountaineers (9-2) and the Horned Frogs meet for the 14th time as league foes. West Virginia carries an 13-2 overall advantage in the series — 11-2 since both teams joined the Big 12. The 2019 season marks the Mountaineers’ third straight season of opening Big 12 play at TCU.
The Mountaineers enter league play leading the Big 12 in scoring defense, scoring margin, free-throw percentage, 3-point field goal percentage defense, steals and turnover margin.
TCU enters Wednesday’s contest with a 10-1 overall mark with the team’s lone loss of the season coming on Nov. 23 when they fell to BYU, 61-58. TCU has defeated SMU, San Diego State, Army and Mississippi among others this season.
The Horned Frogs are averaging 70.8 points and 41.7 rebounds per game, while shooting 45.0 percent from the field, 31.7 percent from beyond the arc and 59.4 percent at the free-throw line.
Senior center Jordan Moore leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, at 16.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. Junior guard Kianna Ray boasts a team-best 62 assists (5.6 per game) and 25 steals (2.3 per game) to go with 11.1 points per game, while senior forward Amy
Okonkwo also averages in double figures, scoring 10.3 points per contest.
