MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Kim Mulkey’s directions were clear, and in a mostly empty WVU Coliseum on Thursday night, her words rang throughout the building.
“Help, help, help!” the Baylor head coach screamed each time West Virginia star guard Kysre Gondrezick touched the ball.
The meaning was simple: The Bears were looking to double-team Gondrezick.
The result was a second half of defensive domination for the seventh-ranked Bears, which came away with a 65-45 victory in the Big 12 opener for both schools.
“She’s such a good scorer and we need her to score,” WVU head coach Mike Carey said. “She’s got to let the game come to her. She can’t just force things.”
Gondrezick had scored at least 20 points in the Mountaineers (4-1) first four games and was coming off a career-high 27 in WVU’s win against Tennessee last Sunday.
Baylor’s defense held Gondrezick scoreless in the second half, as the Bears (3-1) took a game that was tied at 28 at halftime and turned it into a runaway victory.
“We could have very easily had a five, 10-point lead at the half,” Carey said. “We’re right there. I don’t think they’re 20 points better than us. I think we’re right there with them.”
Gondrezick was held to nine points, but her teammates also struggled mightily on the offensive end.
WVU, which will host James Madison on Sunday, was held to just five baskets and 17 points in the second half.
The Mountaineers shot just 18.5% in the second half — not exactly the number you need when trying to pull off the upset.
“We knew they were going to come out strong and we didn’t execute on offense,” said WVU guard Madisen Smith, who also finished with nine points. “We didn’t move the ball. We had too many forced shots by everybody and we weren’t moving the ball.”
Baylor’s two star forwards, NaLyssa Smith and Queen Egbo, combined for just 15 points and 10 rebounds, but it was the play of senior guard DiJonai Carrington off the bench that made the difference. Carrington scored 19 points and had three of the Bears’ six 3-pointers.
“We did a good job on their post players,” Carey said. “What we didn’t do was once they started reversing the ball, our guards didn’t get back out. In the second half, they reversed the ball and started throwing skip passes and our guards didn’t get back out. Once we weren’t scoring, we quit concentrating on defense.”
K.K. Deans led the Mountaineers with 10 points, but she was just 2 of 10 shooting from the field.
Esmery Martinez added nine points and 12 rebounds for WVU.
“They played harder than we did in the second half,” Carey said. “I told them I’d never thought I’d see, especially this year, a team play harder than them. We stood around. I honestly thinks it stems off our offense. We didn’t move the ball and everybody just stood around on offense and we stood around on defense in the second half.”
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