West Virginia faces major challenge in defending Kansas State’s Akoya Lee

MORGANTOWN — Aside from a lingering knee injury with forward Kari Niblack, WVU women’s basketball coach Mike Carey expects to have his normal lineup when the Mountaineers host Kansas State on Saturday night.

That wasn’t the case in last week’s 88-72 loss against Iowa State, in which starting forward Esmery Martinez, as well as key reserves Blessing Ejifor and Jasmine Carson were out due to COVID-19 protocol.

Niblack missed the game, too, due to the injury.

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“Poor Jayla (Hemingway), I had her playing (center) and (power forward),” Carey said. “I had to put a lot of people in different spots. When that happens, you can’t run a lot. It was tough. I give them credit, the girls who were playing played hard and they didn’t give up.”

Carey said Niblack could return, but he wasn’t sure how much the forward could give. Having Martinez and Ejifor back will be a boost, because K-State (12-2, 2-0 Big 12) offers the challenge of trying to defend 6-foot-6 center Akoya Lee.

Having already made a name for herself over her first two seasons, Lee is making a strong case for the Big 12 Player of the Year.

K-State has won its last five games, including a 68-59 upset over Baylor last week in which Lee finished with 32 points and 10 rebounds.

She leads the Big 12 in scoring (23.9 ppg) and is second in the conference in rebounding.

“She’s a great player and she’s going to be a first-round draft choice,” Carey said. “She’s only a junior, but I wish she was a senior. She’s very skilled. She gets the ball up in the post as well as anyone I’ve seen in a long time.”

West Virginia (7-4, 0-1) has lost two of its last three, but has had two games either canceled or postponed due to the pandemic over the last two weeks.

Being down three forwards against Iowa State opened an opportunity for Yemiyah Morris to step in.

The 6-6 senior started her first game of the season and finished with 14 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes. Morris could provide a better physical matchup against Lee in the paint today.

“I’ve always said it takes three to guard a post player,” Carey said. “You have to have ball pressure on the ball. You have to have someone front her and then you have to have weak-side help.

“What they’ll do is go with the skip pass and if they hit those threes, then we’ll have to live with some of them, because we can’t just let her have touches in the paint.”

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