MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — If West Virginia’s performance on Wednesday was any indication, the 18th-ranked Mountaineers are due for one long and frustrating road trip to end their regular season.
Beginning late in the second quarter, Iowa State dominated against the short-handed Mountaineers and came away with an easy 85-68 victory inside Hilton Coliseum.
“We acted like we had no legs, no energy, no nothing,” WVU head coach Mike Carey said.
In playing their first game of the season without point guard Madisen Smith — the junior pulled a hamstring against TCU last Saturday and did not travel with the team — the Mountaineers trailed by as many as 22 points and committed 17 turnovers.
Carey looked to senior Kysre Gondrezick mostly to fill in at point guard, but that took away from Gondrezick’s ability to score from the wing.
She finished with 19 points and four assists, but also had five turnovers and only attempted 10 shots.
“I’ve got to do something,” Carey said. “Kysre can play point guard, but we need her scoring from the wing and KK (Deans) scoring from the wing and all of that. We’ll have to change up a little bit.”
Iowa State (15-9, 11-6 Big 12) became the first team all season to reach 80 points in a game on the Mountaineers, who fell to third place in the Big 12 standings with the loss.
The Cyclones connected on 13 3-pointers and shot 48% from behind the arc and also didn’t miss a free-throw attempt (14 of 14).
“I’d say on three-fourths of them, we didn’t move,” Carey said of the 3-point shots. “We were slow getting out to it. I don’t know why we were as tired as we were. I have no idea.”
If the Mountaineers (17-4, 11-4) are tired now, they still have a long ways to go before the Big 12 Tournament begins on March 11.
WVU will remain on the road to prepare for its road game Saturday at Kansas. The Mountaineers will then return home for a couple of days before finishing the season back out on the road against Kansas State and Baylor.
As for the loss against Iowa State, Carey said forward Kari Niblack was feeling ill and almost didn’t play.
Niblack scored eight points, but committed five fouls over 22 minutes. Fellow forward Esmery Martinez picked up two quick fouls in the first half and had to sit until the second half. She finished with eight points and 10 rebounds.
“We started settling for too many 3-point shots,” Carey said. “They rotated some of their post players out there and we settled for a three instead of going around them and going to the paint. I think it’s because they had no legs.”
Deans added 14 points and seven rebounds and Jayla Hemingway added 12 points for the Mountaineers.
Iowa State’s Ashley Joens, the Big 12’s leading scorer at 23.4 points per game, scored 20 to lead the Cyclones.
Senior center Kristin Scott added 18 points and freshman guard Lexi Donarski also scored 18 after going 4 of 8 from behind the arc.
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