No. 19 West Virginia has chance to make a statement against the Longhorns

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Before the 19th-ranked West Virginia women’s basketball team even takes the Coliseum court against Texas at 1 p.m. Sunday, the shot heard around the Big 12 had already been taken.

That came with Baylor’s 16-point road victory against No. 1 Connecticut on Thursday — the loss ended UConn’s 98-game home winning streak — a statement that the Bears are as good as advertised.

The Mountaineers (12-1, 2-0) have their chance to respond with a good showing against the Longhorns (9-5, 1-1), although they are not making that their focus against the school that has been a perennial power and NCAA tournament contender.

“Yeah, maybe if we win it,” WVU head coach Mike Carey said. “It’s still early. Even if we were to win, it’s not like, ‘Oh boy, we’re here. We’ve arrived.’ If we lose it, I don’t think we’re out of anything. It’s just another important game at home. You’ve got to win your games at home.”

“I think it can be a statement game, but I believe it’s that way for all conference games,” added WVU guard Tynice Martin. “Anytime you win a Big 12 game, you’re making a statement.”

If any Big 12 team is going to step up and challenge Baylor this season, it could very well be the winner of today’s game.

The Mountaineers have been surging since late November, winning eight straight.
Texas, meanwhile, may be one of the tougher teams to get a handle on in the entire country.

Texas owns a road win against Tennessee and then used a strong fourth quarter to knock off then-No. 1 Stanford on Dec. 22.

Yet, the Longhorns have also lost at Hawaii and fell against TCU when Horned Frogs forward Michelle Berry scored on a put-back basket with six seconds left in the game.

“I hope they keep having an odd season on Sunday,” Carey said. “Watching film on them, they’ve been playing much better. (Lashann) Higgs was hurt for them last year and she’s starting to play much better for them now. They’re a very good team. They are big and strong. It’s your typical Texas team, because they have a lot of talent.”

Texas’ talent is spread throughout its starting lineup, but Carey said the Longhorns’ front line of Joyner Holmes (6-foot-3) and Charli Collier (6-5) will be a unique challenge.

“They have athletes out on the perimeter and we’ll have to defend them,” Carey said. “What makes them a little bit tougher is their bigs will pop out for threes. We’ll have to come up with some things where we don’t leave them.”

Holmes, who leads Texas in scoring at 14.7 points per game, has taken 18 3-point attempts this season, while Collier is 10 for 31 from behind the arc.

The two also combine for 20 rebounds per game.

“Everyone knows that Texas plays just as hard as we do,” Martin said. “They’re big and they play up the lane on defense. We definitely have to box out and match their intensity.”

West Virginia won the last meeting, a 64-58 win at the Frank Erwin Center last season — “I doubt they have forgotten that,” Martin said. — but the Longhorns have won nine of the last 11 against WVU.

Getting back into the national rankings has been a first step for the Mountaineers, who are coming off two seasons that came up short of NCAA tournament aspirations.

A win against the Longhorns could go a long way in determining just how far the Mountaineers could go this season.

“Coach Carey gets us fired up for every game, regardless of how many wins or what kind of wins we have,” Martin said. “he lets us know to stay humble, because we haven’t got anywhere, yet. The last two years, we’ve been in the WNIT and he’s making sure we don’t go down that road again.”

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