MORGANTOWN — In her own mind, KK Deans was not about to let a sprained ankle keep her off the court.
As the old saying goes, a hurt ankle is a long way from one’s heart.
“She’s going to gut it out,” West Virginia head coach Mike Carey said. “KK is tough. She’s always going to gut it out.”
Playing on a sprained ankle that forced Deans to miss some practice time this week, the junior went out and scored 20 points and added five assists and five rebounds Tuesday night, as the Mountaineers held off Charlotte 65-54 in front of 1,205 fans inside the WVU Coliseum.
“I was in treatment every day, three times a day,” Deans said. “I’d say it’s about 70 percent. I already knew I was going to play in my mind, but when (Carey) said it, I went pretty hard during the shoot-around to get myself going.”
On this night, the Mountaineers (5-2) needed just about every one of Dean’s points, as WVU’s offense continues to struggle through too many turnovers and mental mistakes.
WVU failed to reach 70 points for the fourth consecutive game and shot just 43.8% (21 of 48) from the floor, while committing a season-high 24 turnovers.
“We’re not playing well right now,” Carey said. “We had it going for a while with pushing the ball down and getting some wide open shots, but then we kept turning the ball over.
“We’ve got to get some things corrected.”
Charlotte (3-5) stayed within single digits of the Mountaineers for most of the game and got within six points with 2:19 remaining, before WVU finally pulled away in the final minute by causing three turnovers that turned into free throws from Deans and Madisen Smith.
“Good teams, when they get somebody down, they just keep playing harder and executing more,” Carey said. “We’re just not a good team right now. Do we have the capability of being a good team? Absolutely, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
Smith added 11 points in what was her first game of the season in double figures.
“It’s definitely been a little bit frustrating,” the senior point guard said. “I’m trying not to force things and try to get myself going on defense. When the shots are open, I’m still going to take them.”
Other than that, it was a frustrating night for a team that was ranked in the AP Top 25 just two weeks ago.
“We knew we couldn’t lose this game,” Deans said. “We’ve got to limit our turnovers. We had way too many turnovers. Twenty-four turnovers is crazy.
“We get timid and sped up sometimes. We’ve got to get our veterans and newcomers to all play together, because we’ve got a long season ahead of us.”
WVU plays at James Madison on Sunday before traveling to the West Palm Beach Invitational, where WVU will play South Florida and Michigan State.
“We’re out of sync,” Carey said. “There were a couple of times we had some people in there and we were running a quick-hitter and they forgot the play, which created a turnover. We’ve just got to get better as a team.”
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