WVU women's basketball walked into the Phog Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas for a New Year's Day showdown with the Kansas Jayhawks, and walked out holding onto an unblemished record in conference play with a 79-72 win. Here are my initial takeaways as the Mountaineers remain perfect in the Big 12.
The Mountaineers look ready for conference play
Make what you will of WVU's opening win in conference play against a Houston team that is currently just 6-7 on the season, but the win over Kansas provides a victory against a much more talented opponent.
The Jayhawks entered 10-3, and two of their three losses came against teams which were undefeated entering New Year's Day. They nearly upset a top-ten Iowa State team just before Christmas. And while West Virginia wasn't as dominant on Thursday as they were against the Cougars, the game always felt pretty safe for the Mountaineers toward the end of the contest, and they're probably ready to play at a high level against formidable Big 12 competition.
Offense Continues To Dangerously Efficient
Well, dangerous as in how it effects other teams – because how are you going to stop an offense scoring at a clip like the Mountaineers have been? I wrote about this after the Houston win, because the Mountaineers shot 36-of-70 from the field (51%) and 11-of-23 from three-point range (47%) and saw assists on 21 of their 36 made buckets (58%).
Well, they picked up right where they left off, shooting 27-of-54 from the field (50%) and 13-of-27 from three-point range (48%), and had 16 assists on 25 made buckets (64%). When a team is able to knock down their shots at such a high-rate and are so willing to make the extra pass, it's hard to slow them down.
Carter McCray provides strong presence in post in fifth straight start
After 15-point performance against Mercyhurst, McCray has found herself inserted into the team's starting lineup over the past five games. She turned in anothe double-digit performance in her first start, but had slowed down offensively over the past three games. But against Kansas, she showed once again just how dangerous she can be on the offensive end of the floor.
In the win, she scored a season-high 16 points while shooting 5-of-7 from the field. She also tied her second-best rebounding performance by pulling down seven boards. This all came as she was relied on more heavily than she had been all season, as she also registered a season-high 34 minutes in the win – her previous high was 23 minutes.