No. 19 WVU faces high-powered Oklahoma State offense with Big 12 tourney seedings on the line

MORGANTOWN — You already know about West Virginia’s defense, the one that leads the Big 12 in turnovers forced (631) and is holding opponents to 59 points per game.

Now, meet Oklahoma State’s offense, one that is on pace to score the most points by a Big 12 team since the 2022-23 season.

The Cowgirls (21-7, 10-5 Big 12) have – this is not a typo – six players averaging at least 10 points per game, which has them leading the Big 12 in scoring at 83.4 points per game with 10 games this season with at least 90 points scored.

How quickly can Oklahoma State score? There was a 44-point quarter against Mississippi Valley State. The Cowgirls have had eight games with at least 13 3-pointers.

“I think it’s the best offensive group from an efficiency standpoint that’s in our league,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “They’re phenomenal in transition. They can space you out. They’ll play small, too, at times, and almost play five guards and make you defend all over the perimeter. They can shoot the three and make quite a few of them, but they can also get to the rim and score in different ways. They are elite in transition and elite in shot making.”

Either No. 19 WVU (21-6, 11-4) has to find a way to go point-for-point with Oklahoma State at 2 p.m. Saturday, when the two teams meet inside Hope Coliseum, or the Mountaineers have to slow the Cowgirls down.

“They have a lot of versatility with lots of different ball-handlers and different people bring it up (the floor) and they’re in different spots in transition,” Kellogg said. “They’ll put some pressure on our defense, for sure.”

Oklahoma State is led by senior guard Michah Gray, who averages 15 points per game and leads the Big 12 with 81 3-pointers. Gray was a high school teammate of WVU point guard Jordan Harrison. 

South Dakota State transfer Haleigh Timmer adds 12.5 points per game and has knocked down 66 3-pointers.

How West Virginia goes about slowing down Oklahoma State’s offense is not the only question it faces today.

The Mountaineers must also find a way to regroup following a 59-50 road loss at No. 12 TCU, a defeat that knocked WVU out of first place in the Big 12 standings. The Mountaineers are now a game behind the Horned Frogs with three games remaining and are in a three-way tie for second place along with Baylor and Texas Tech.

Oklahoma State is just one game behind that group in the standings, meaning the Cowgirls could make a major push up the standings today with a road win in Morgantown.

“We need to take the excitement and make it motivation,” WVU guard Riley Makalusky said. “We need to win these next three games. That’s what I’m carrying over from the TCU game. Obviously, it was an exciting atmosphere, a ton of fans and it was really loud. I think we need to carry that on.

“We can’t get down on the fact we lost. We need to win these next three games.”

The other question facing WVU: Can Harrison get her game going again? She was held scoreless against TCU, just the second time in her college career that’s happened.

“I don’t know that (TCU) did anything particularly,” Kellogg said. “She probably wasn’t as aggressive as we would have liked her to be offensively. She only took five shots and four of them were threes, and so we couldn’t get her downhill as much as we would have liked.”

At stake today is an elimination game, of sorts, concerning the race for one of the top four seeds for the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City, Mo. The top four seeds earn a double bye in the tournament, meaning they won’t play until the quarterfinal round.

The loser of today’s game wouldn’t be mathematically eliminated from securing one of the top four seeds, but would face nearly-impossible odds of accomplishing that goal.

“At this point for us, all of our attention has to be on Oklahoma State and the remaining games,” Kellogg said. “We’re still in a decent spot, but we don’t control our own destiny (for a Big 12 championship), and that’s the disappointing part. We’re going to need a little help for a Big 12 title, but there’s still plenty on the line from seedings to double-byes to NCAA tournament implications.

“We’ll keep moving forward. We’ve worked really hard to put ourselves in this position and we have a really good Oklahoma State team coming up.”