MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — At her postgame press conference, West Virginia forward Kari Niblack began bending her left knee for everyone to see.
“You hear it popping?” she asked.
It was heard from the back row.
Minutes earlier, the sophomore had saved the day for the Mountaineers in their 68-63 victory Sunday against Texas.
Playing with a heavily-bandaged left knee, it was Niblack’s offensive rebound and assist to Kysre Gondrezick with 39 seconds left that proved to be the difference.
What led up to that moment is a story few inside the WVU program will ever forget.
Niblack hurt the knee fighting for a rebound with 4:36 remaining in the third quarter.
For WVU head coach Mike Carey, he’s seen it too many times over the years with one of his best players laying on the floor in pain.
“I think she was very scared,” Carey said. “I didn’t ask a lot of questions. I knew it was the knee. I wanted to calm our other players down.”
Niblack was helped off the floor to the locker room, and if you’ve ever wondered what happens behind the scenes in that type of moment, Niblack shared her story.
“When I was walking to the trainer’s room, I was a little afraid, because it was hurting pretty bad,” Niblack said. “The dude came in and checked me out. I started walking around on it and then I started running on it in the training room and it started to feel better.
“At first, it was hurting pretty bad, but then it started to feel better.”
Carey said his initial feeling is to hold Niblack out of Wednesday’s game against Oklahoma, but he would wait and see.
“I know she’s sore,” Carey said. “We may have some swelling (on Monday) and some stiffness, that’s why I’m not so sure she’ll play Wednesday.”
Where WVU stands
Before the game even began, ESPN’s bracketology had the Mountaineers slotted to host one of the 16 first- and second-round NCAA tournament regionals.
WVU (13-1, 3-0 Big 12) was projected as a No. 4 seed.
That is a far cry from the past two seasons, in which the Mountaineers were simply hoping to scrape together enough wins just to get invited to the NCAA tournament.
Now, the Mountaineers are in a position to host a regional for the first time in school history.
“This is a lot more fun right now,” Carey said. “I might not be saying that at the end of the week. Right now, it’s a lot of fun. I think our girls are showing a lot more heart.”
WVU did host a NCAA tournament game in 1992, against Clemson, but the tournament was just 48 teams that season and early-round games weren’t a true regional as seen in today’s 64-team field.
The top 16 teams didn’t begin hosting NCAA regionals until 2015.
News and notes
* Tynice Martin’s 23 points leaves her 30 points shy of moving past Teana Muldrow for fourth place on the school’s all-time scoring list. Martin now has 1,790 career points.
* Texas coach Karen Aston said she was impressed with how Niblack and teammates Rochelle Norris and Blessing Ejifor held their own against the Longhorns’ inside duo of Joyner Holmes and Charli Collier.
“I thought we were able to exploit them a little bit in the second half,” Aston said. “We got zero out of our bigs in the first half and they had a lot to do with it. They’re competitive spirit and their intentions was much different than ours was in the first half.”
The WVU trio combined for 20 rebounds, although the Longhorns came away with a 45-37 edge on the glass.
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