MORGANTOWN — Maybe the quickest eight-point burst of the season gave the West Virginia women’s basketball team a cushion on Saturday night.
Sydney Woodley and WVU’s defense made it stick against BYU.
No. 22 WVU improved to 6-0 on the season in true road games following a 91-77 victory against BYU inside the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. The Mountaineers (17-4, 7-2 Big 12) have now won four of their last five games and are within a half-game of both TCU and Baylor for first place in the Big 12 standings at the halfway mark of the conference’s regular season. Both Baylor and TCU are 7-1 in league play.
As for this game, WVU survived an early scoring spree by BYU (15-5, 4-4). The Cougars led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, before WVU fought back into the game to take a 41-38 halftime lead.
“It was good to get the offense going,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said on his radio postgame show. “We had struggled in two of the last three to put the ball in the hoop. Defense was a little optional at times. We probably need to get that one fixed up. You don’t want to give up 77 on the road too often, but I was really proud of their response after those first five or six minutes.”
West Virginia took the lead for good early in the third quarter on a scoring outburst that covered an 8-0 that took just 18 seconds.
Sydney Shaw nailed a 3-pointer with 8:59 remaining in the quarter to give WVU a 44-41 lead. That was followed by Jordan Harrison stealing the inbounds pass and laying it in for a 46-41 advantage. Shaw then stole BYU’s next inbounds pass and kicked it over to teammate Gia Cooke for another 3-pointer with 8:41 still on the clock.
BYU head coach Lee Cummard was forced to call timeout, but the Cougars never got closer than six points the rest of the way, as Woodley scored a career-high 23 points off the bench for WVU and Cooke added 21.
“Everybody shared the ball really well today,” Cooke told ESPN following the game. “Woodley made some great plays. Our bigs packed the paint. It was a collective win for everybody.”
It was the sixth game this season Cooke broke the 20-point barrier for WVU, which led by double digits for the entire fourth quarter.
Woodley is normally West Virginia’s defensive specialist, and she did finish with four of the Mountaineers’ 13 steals for the game, but she also added an offensive punch by going 11 of 12 from the free-throw line and shot 6 of 7 from the floor for her 23 points.
“It was a really good, efficient offensive game. I thought we had a lot of people involved,” Kellogg said. “I’m really happy for Sydney Woodley. That was a career high for her, so that was fantastic.”
Carter McCray added a double-double for WVU before fouling out late in the game. She had 13 points and 11 rebounds and Harrison and Kierra Wheeler both finished with 11 points for the Mountaineers.
BYU star guard Delaney Gibb led the Cougars with 28 points, with 21 of those coming in the second half.
“We didn’t do a great job on Gibb,” Kellogg said. “We let her get way too comfortable.”
WVU is about to see if it can get a seventh consecutive road win. The Mountaineers will remain in the state of Utah and will travel to the Utah Utes at 9 p.m. Tuesday to begin the second half of Big 12 play.
“We just show a lot of resilience and a lot of grit,” Cooke said. “We haven’t lost to anyone on the road yet, so we wanted to come in here and take over. We want the crowd to be silent every time.”
