MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Having just watched his team make just two baskets over the first 10 minutes Saturday, Mike Carey joked he was seconds away from trying something different.
“I almost went up and sat with (the media),” he said.
Instead of a different view, Carey just went back to an old theory: Play defense.
West Virginia erased an early 12-4 deficit and knocked off Kansas, 60-53, in front of 3,135 fans inside the WVU Coliseum.
“The only concern was how could we come out flat when the NCAA (tournament) is on the line?” WVU guard Tynice Martin said of the slow start. “With our season on the line, how could we come out flat like that? No panic, though. There was a lot of game left.”
The rest of the game saw the Mountaineers (16-9, 6-8 Big 12) score 21 points off of 22 Kansas turnovers, while holding the Jayhawks to just 33.9% (19 of 56) shooting.
“Defense leads to offense and we buckled down more,” said WVU forward Kari Niblack, who finished with 14 points and six rebounds. “That got us the win tonight.”
The victory kept the Mountaineers alive for a first-round bye in next month’s Big 12 tournament, but it is still an uphill road for WVU.
West Virginia is in sixth place — the top six teams earn a first-round bye — but host No. 2 Baylor on Monday.
The Mountaineers are just a half-game ahead of Oklahoma State, which owns the tiebreaker, because it swept WVU. Oklahoma State travels to TCU today.
By halftime, the game was tied at 26 and the Jayhawks (13-12, 2-12) never led after the first 90 seconds of the second half.
Martin finished with 19 points and added five rebounds. She is just 65 points shy of becoming just the fourth WVU women’s player to reach 2,000 career points.
Still, it was not a dominant offensive showing. WVU shot just 34.6% (18 of 52) from the field, but did add 18 points from the foul line.
WVU played its third consecutive game without leading scorer Kysre Gondrezick, who is in concussion protocol.
“We were getting some open shots, but were settling for threes again,” Carey said. “We’ve got to get moving offensively. When we move the ball and attack north and south, good things happen for us. When we stand around and go east and west and settle for jump shots, we’re just not that team right now that’s hitting those shots.”
Madisen Smith added 12 points for the Mountaineers.
Kansas was led by Zakiyah Franklin’s 12 points. Mariane De Carvalho and Aniya Thomas added 10 each for the Jayhawks.
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