MORGANTOWN — Somewhere in Cedar Park, Texas, there is a basketball rim in a driveway and a happy Bill Pardee.
Both played a role in helping WVU women’s basketball guard Katrina Pardee learn the game, or more to the point, learn to shoot a basketball.
Her father, Bill, “would always help me and tell me what I had to work on,” Pardee said after scoring 23 points and connecting on six 3-pointers to lead the 20th-ranked Mountaineers to an 82-52 victory against Texas Tech, on Jan. 24, in front of 1,987 fans inside the WVU Coliseum.
Help is what Pardee needed as of late. A shooting slump was threatening to develop into its own era for the junior.
The numbers for the Mountaineers’ (17-4, 5-4 Big 12) top long-distance shooter have been unkind since the team’s loss at Texas last month.
Pardee went seven games shooting 20.3 percent from the field and 23.3 percent from 3-point range.
Each game brought a call of support, but also a reminder to get in the gym and work on her shot from Bill Pardee.
“My parents are always watching,” Katrina said. “My dad is definitely my biggest critic, but also my biggest supporter, as well. He’s always there to tell me what I need to work on.”
There was no off day for Katrina Pardee. Time off from practice simply meant getting into the WVU practice facility and shoot hundreds of shots.
It paid off against the Red Raiders (7-13, 1-8), a team with their own interesting story in junior guard Haley Bruedigam, a former Red Raiders’ student manager who joined the program after playing college ball at the Division II level last season.
The NCAA ruled Bruedigam eligible on Tuesday, and she flew from Lubbock, Texas, to Houston to Pittsburgh and then took an Uber to the team’s hotel in Morgantown.
She played 13 minutes and recorded two rebounds.
Pardee’s contributions were just a bit more.
She hit her first four 3-point attempts of the game to officially end the slump and then just kept right on shooting.
“We started off shooting the ball well with Katrina,” WVU head coach Mike Carey said. “We did a good job of getting her the ball.
“It was good to see. The other thing that was good to see was her teammates knew she was hot and they kept giving it to her.”
Pardee had scored 16 at the half, on 5 of 6 from 3-point range and scored all 23 before the end of the third quarter.
“It definitely boosts my confidence, which had been an issue,” Pardee said. “As a shooter, you just want to keep shooting. It felt good.”
Her teammates surrounded her with help. Teana Muldrow added 18 points and seven rebounds and Chania Ray also scored 18.
Erin Degrate came off the bench and scored 20 to lead Texas Tech.
In all, WVU went 13 of 24 (54 percent) from 3-point range and forced 30 turnovers.
“They didn’t do a good job of taking care off the ball,” Carey said.
It all set up a date with third-ranked Baylor on Jan. 28.
Considering the Red Raiders were able to use their size advantage to score 32 points in the paint, Carey already knows the Mountaineers will have to be better against the Bears.
“If we let Baylor lob that ball into [Kalani] Brown, it’s going to be a long night,” Carey said. “We only dressed eight tonight. I may have to get some of you guys [the media] to dress, because we may foul out everyone on the team.”
