MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It was about as bad as it could get for the WVU women’s basketball team to start the fourth quarter against Oklahoma on Saturday at the WVU Coliseum.
The No. 19 Mountaineers, riding an 11-game winning streak coming into the game, led the Sooners by nine at 66-57 to start the frame. After that, WVU missed 11 of 13 shots and committed seven turnovers, while OU made six of nine shots, including three of four from 3, in the final 10 minutes to escape with a 72-71 win.
“We just weren’t focused — careless and turned the ball over,” senior guard Kysre Gondrezick said. “They didn’t beat us, we just beat ourselves.”
The issues started earlier in the second half when forward Kari Niblack committed her fourth foul in the third quarter, and fellow forward Esmery Martinez did the same in the fourth. With both post players in foul trouble, along with a lack of depth in the front court as is, head coach Mike Carey was forced to go to a smaller lineup.
Spacing issues plagued the offense, size hurt rebounding, and missed shots and turnovers led to fast-break offense for Oklahoma, which typically runs a smaller, guard-oriented lineup.
“It was rebounding where we can spread and guard (that hurt),” Carey said. “Kari and Esmery and more like a [small forward] and [power forward], so they can go inside and outside a little bit, so when we didn’t have anybody else who could take their places to do that, it really hurt us.”
The Mountaineers (16-3, 10-3 Big 12) had a chance at the end. On an inbounds play with 22 seconds remaining, Gondrezick forced a steal and called timeout as she gained possession on the floor. With fouls to give, the Sooners fouled with seven seconds left. On WVU’s final possession, Martinez missed a baseline jumper, Niblack got the offensive rebound and kicked it to guard Madisen Smith, whose 3-point attempt rattled out as time expired.
OU avenged an earlier 18-point loss to the Mountaineers in Norman.
In its last two games, WVU committed 37 total turnovers, and Carey said that was a point of emphasis after the Kansas win last Wednesday.
“Everybody is clogging up the paint on us,” he said. “They know we’re going to drive and we’re not making good decisions when we get in the paint. Probably 10 times tonight, they clogged it up and we left our feet and had nobody to pass it to and turned it over. We just have to be smarter when we get downhill.”
KK Deans led the Mountaineers with 22 points, and Gondrezick finished with 19. Jasmine Carson, who was forced to play more minutes due to foul issues, scored 10 points off the bench.
For OU (8-9, 5-7), Madi Williams, who scored a program-record 45 points in the first meeting, led the Sooners with 21 points.
With a trip to No. 7 Baylor looming for WVU, it will be key to learn and forget before Wednesday’s matchup with the Bears.
“We’ve just go to look at some film, lock in and get ready for Baylor,” Gondrezick said. “It’s a long season, we’ve done well do far and we just have to clean up the unforced turnovers.”
The Baylor game will tip at 8 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN+.
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