No. 18 West Virginia women’s basketball hung tight with No. 25 Baylor in an absolutely crucial Big 12 battle on Tuesday night -- both teams entered the game in the top-third of the conference standings, and were looking to secure their spot amongst the best in the league down the February homestretch of the season.
The action was close, with six lead changes in the first five minutes of the game and the two teams matching each other 39-39 in the final two periods of play. But Baylor outscored the Mountaineers 17-10 in the second quarter, including a 12-4 run in the final 5:33 before the halftime break, and it was too much for WVU to overcome. They failed to find a big run of their own -- typically a hallmark of the Mountaineers under Head Coach Mark Kellogg -- and couldn't escape Waco with a win as the Bears ran away to a 75-65 victory.
“I was waiting for us to make the runs we’re used to making, but we didn’t convert and we didn’t make shots,” Kellogg said after the game. “We kept talking about staying in the fight as long as we can, to see if we can make a run, but we just didn’t have it in us. We needed a few more kids to step up.”
Late in the contest, the fouls started piling up in the worst ways for WVU, making their attempt at a rally that much more difficult. Three WVU players finished with four-or-more fouls, and Jordan Harrison fouled out late in the game. The Mountaineers and the Bears each ended with 18 personal fouls apiece, but only one Baylor player ended with four-or-more and nobody fouled out on their team.
“You just adapt, I did think it was called a little differently, that’s kind of what I told them a few minutes into that second half…but you just adjust,” Kellogg said.
“That’s not any different based on who you play. They were letting it go a little bit early and then maybe [got] a little bit tighter, and you just have to adjust as coaches and players. It's nothing we hadn’t seen previously.”
The Mountaineers (19-5, 9-4) drop to sixth in the league standings, and the Bears (21-5, 11-2) move to second-place in the Big 12. The Mountaineers will have a pair of ranked opponents on the schedule next week in No. 14 Kansas State (currently third in the league) and No. 11 TCU (currently first in the league).
“[Baylor was] definitely a game for us to learn from, and coach just talked to us about that,” Jordan Harrison said. “We’ll have many more games like that which will mean just as much as this one did, and the best thing for us to do is learn from it so that way when it presents itself again, we’ll be ready.”