West Virginia women’s basketball is still perfect in Big 12 play. The Mountaineers continue to stack wins and are one of five teams in the conference that remain unbeaten after two games.
WVU’s been dousing Big 12 opponents with the 3-pointer. It was shaky at first against Kansas, but the Mountaineers found their stride, knocking down a total of 13 3-pointers, which was a season high. WVU shot at a season-high 48%, too. In the first conference game, WVU made 11 3-pointers against Houston.
It’s a good time to get hot as Big 12 play is in full swing.
“We made some threes,” head coach Mark Kellogg said after Kansas. “Obviously, when you make 13 threes, you’re probably going to put some points up. We don’t always do that. We have the ability, but we don’t do that every single night. We made quite a few the other night as well, in our first Big 12 game, and followed it up with 13, so I think if we can shoot it like that, we can be dangerous offensively.”
Guard Gia Cooke really started to heat up and had six threes of her own. She led all scorers with 24 points, tying her season high. Guard Sydney Shaw had 18 points and had four 3-pointers.
WVU’s 3-point shooting will be tested once again with another road game at Kansas State on Jan. 4. The Wildcats are one of the six teams at 1-1 in Big 12 play and are 8-7 on the season.
It’s been a very up-and-down season for head coach Jeff Mittie’s squad. Kansas State has losses to Green Bay and South Dakota, but pulled off the upset against No. 13 Ole Miss. The Wildcats can make some noise, but it’s unpredictable.
Kansas State doesn’t score too many points and spreads the ball around quite a bit. Guard Taryn Sides leads the team with 14.1 points per game, and the only other player over double-digits is Belgium native forward Nastja Claessens. The rest of the offense is spread out among numerous players.
The Mountaineers shouldn’t really have an issue against Kansas State, especially if WVU keeps up the streak of getting hot from deep. The Wildcats’ perimeter defense isn’t the strongest. Kansas State has allowed the third-best shooting percentage from range this year. WVU isn’t any better and has actually allowed the second-best in the Big 12.
Kellogg said after Kansas that the defense still needs some work.
“I don’t know if we played great,” Kellogg said. “I didn’t love us defensively. Credit to Kansas for that. They make it really difficult.”
WVU has an opportunity to lock things down defensively against Kansas State. The Wildcats aren’t a team to take a game off against, though, especially on the road. But, by the looks of it, with wins over Houston and Kansas, the Mountaineers aren’t showing mercy to anyone.
If WVU takes care of business in Manhattan, Kansas, the Mountaineers will be 3-0 in conference play heading into a home game against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are 15-0 on the season and were ranked No. 21 in the AP Poll. That’ll be a big game in Hope Coliseum on Jan. 7.
First, WVU needs to keep the momentum going with a win over Kansas State to start the new year with back-to-back road wins. But anything can happen on the road, according to Kellogg.
“You have to be tough on the road,” Kellogg said. “You have to find ways to win. Sometimes it’s ugly. Sometimes it can be pretty.”
