MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A 69-61 win Wednesday night over Kansas was the 11th straight for the West Virginia women’s basketball team, a mark head coach Mike Carey and junior forward Kari Niblack are proud of.
But neither one were happy with the Mountaineers’ performance vs. the Jayhawks at the WVU Coliseum.
“I think Kansas played Kansas basketball, but we did not play West Virginia basketball today,” Niblack said.
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WVU (16-2, 10-2) got off to a hot offensive start, making 7 of its first 10 shots and scoring 23 points in the first quarter. Senior guard Kysre Gondrezick scored 15 points and was 5 of 5 from the field in the first 12 minutes as the Mountaineers built a 12-point lead in the second quarter.
From there, though, the offensive flow seemed to vanish and WVU struggled to keep possession, committing nine turnovers in the second quarter, forcing Carey to make a change at halftime. Total, the Mountaineers finished with 17 turnovers.
“Every time we got a double-digit lead, we had a turnover — turnover here and a turnover there — I mean, we had 17 turnovers as a team. That’s ridiculous, just ridiculous,” Carey said. “We weren’t setting up picks and weren’t coming off picks, and we weren’t moving the ball. They were just stacking up the middle so we were just throwing out of it and getting a bunch of turnovers.”
Even though it’s not what WVU likes to do, Carey decided to slow the game down in the second half, which allowed Niblack and fellow forward Esmery Martinez to get involved. Each finished with 17 points and shot a combined 15 of 25 from the floor.
“In the third quarter, I just started slowing them down,” Carey said. “We don’t play well slowing down, but I had to get Kari and Esmery some touches. We were able to get inside and get some touches inside and at least change up a little bit.”
After Gondrezick’s hot start, she missed her next 12 shots until finally getting a layup on a run-out following a long pass from Madisen Smith late in the fourth quarter. Gondrezick still finished with 19 points to lead the team, and KK Deans also scored in double figures with 11.
For Kansas (7-10, 3-8), Holly Kersgieter led all scorers with 25 points.
The 11-game winning streak is currently the longest among Power 5 programs, and while Carey said he told his team the accomplishment is something to take pride in, he’s concerned about complacency.
“It is a positive, but we’ve got to look at the end,” he said. “We’ve got to keep getting better. I told them after the game I’m proud of them, but we’re not showing up for practice like we used to. We used to get in there and shoot a half hour before practice and we haven’t been doing that as much anymore.
“We’re becoming complacent and we can’t do that. We have to get better every game and today, we didn’t get better. We took a step back.”
The win breaks a second-place tie with Oklahoma State in the Big 12 standings. WVU trails first-place Baylor by just half a game.
The Mountaineers will look to win their 12th straight at 2 p.m. Sunday, hosting Oklahoma. WVU beat the Sooners, 90-72, on Jan. 3 in Norman, Okla.
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