MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — A glimmer of hope midway through the second quarter was quickly turned into an afterthought Monday.
The second-ranked Baylor women’s basketball team captured its 10th consecutive Big 12 regular-season title with a 64-39 victory in front of 2,146 fans inside the WVU Coliseum.
The Bears (26-1, 15-0) did it with defense, holding the Mountaineers to their lowest shooting percentage of the season.
“We take pride in our defense,” said Baylor center Lauren Cox, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. “One of the stats we always look at is field-goal percentage defense. That’s one thing we try to emphasize.”
The Bears didn’t have to look long and hard to figure out West Virginia’s percentage: It was just 23.6% (13 of 55) for the game.
It was also West Virginia’s lowest point total in a game since also scoring 39 in a victory against Georgetown in the 2012 Big East tournament.
There was no such victory this time, although WVU (16-10, 6-9) did keep it as close as 19-17 with Madisen Smith’s 3-pointer with 6:24 left in the second quarter.
From there it was total dominance. With five minutes left in the game, WVU had 30 points, just one more than the Bears had at the half.
“I wouldn’t say their defense was so hectic that we couldn’t get open,” said WVU guard Kysre Gondrezick, who finished with a team-high 13 points after missing the last three games with a concussion. “It was more about us being lethargic and not working to get the ball. I wouldn’t say their defense gave us too many issues. We were able to do what we wanted, but we just couldn’t convert.”
Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey was quick to disagree.
“We defend the on-ball screen different than even West Virginia,” Mulkey said. “They want to isolate you. With the post athleticism I have, I don’t need to isolate you. I tell our guards to go under (the screen) or get over depending how good the perimeter shooter is.
“I hope that it does create problems for teams. We have athleticism at every position. When you’ve got kids that will fight over screens, you’re going to win a lot of basketball games.”
The result: Gondrezick and Tynice Martin, who average a combined 31 points, were held to just 20.
Martin only attempted three shots in the second half and her only two points in the half came on two technical-foul free throws.
“You could go right down the line, we weren’t hitting any shots,” WVU head coach Mike Carey said. “Why were we taking the first shot? Why weren’t we moving the ball to get a better shot? You’re going to be open at the end of the shot clock, so we should have been making them move. It’s understanding basketball.”
Meanwhile, Baylor shot 45% (24 of 53) and outscored the Mountaineers, 25-9, in the third quarter to put the game away.
“We didn’t compete in the third quarter,” Carey said.
Te’a Cooper led the Bears with 17 points and she connected on four 3-pointers.
With the loss, WVU remained a half-game ahead of Texas Tech for sixth place in the Big 12 standings.
The Red Raiders travel to Oklahoma State on Wednesday.
More than just their place in the conference standings, the Mountaineers must also focus on simply finding a spot in the NCAA tournament.
According to the latest ESPN projections, WVU is still on the outside looking in.
West Virginia travels to Iowa State and Texas Tech for its next two games, before hosting TCU on March 7 to finish the regular season.
“We’ve got to win all three,” Carey said. “Two of the teams we beat here and (TCU) beat us at their place, so we’ve got to win all three of them.”
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