MORGANTOWN — Sometimes there’s nothing better than a second chance, and the Texas women’s basketball team proved why on Wednesday in knocking off West Virginia 69-56 inside the Coliseum.
The 24th-ranked Longhorns dominated on the glass and chasing down loose balls and turned those into a 17-5 advantage in second-chance points against WVU, which seemed to be a step slow and struggled in a number of areas.
“We had 14 (offensive rebounds) tonight, but our leading offensive rebounder is a guard,” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said. “We were getting a few tonight.”
Texas (17-6, 8-2 Big 12), the top team in the Big 12 standings, began the game on a 13-2 run and basically led from start to finish. WVU (14-6, 5-4) chipped away and got to within 48-45 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Mountaineers didn’t have enough to overcome their mistakes.
Leading scorers J.J. Quinerly got in early foul trouble and ended up fouling out late in the fourth quarter after scoring 11 points, while Madisen Smith was held to just five points on 2 of 8 shooting. WVU couldn’t make free throws, either, finishing 11 of 21, while the Longhorns won the rebounding battle 39-25.
“Texas did some things that frustrated us on both ends of the court,” WVU head coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Ultimately, I think their second-chance points really hurt us and us missing 10 free throws really hurt us. You’ve got to minimize those two things and shrink that down and it’s a little different scenario.”
That scenario seemed to be shifting in the third quarter, as the Mountaineers mounted their final charge. Savannah Samuel scored an and-one three-point play with a driving lay-up and Sarah Bates followed that up with a drive through the lane of her own to cut Texas’ lead down to three points at the end of the third quarter.
“When they cut it to three, I saw us answer the bell,” Schaefer said. “To me, that’s a really good sign for this group. We’ve had our issues with a lack of toughness at times, and toughness isn’t always physical. It’s mental, you know, make a block out, make a free throw, make a tough shot. There’s so many things that go into toughness.”
Texas scored the first five points to open the fourth quarter and when junior forward Khadija Faye grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with 4:55 left, Texas led 59-52.
“Obviously it gets frustrating, but we kept a good attitude and energy,” said WVU guard Sarah Bates about the Longhorns’ second chances. “Sometimes things don’t go your way, especially loose balls and things like that, but we played hard until the end.”
Bates came off the bench to score a season-high 12 points for the Mountaineers, who shot 42% (21 of 50) from the field and committed 18 turnovers.
“I thought our young ladies battled and competed and found a way to get back in it,” Plitzuweit said. “For stretches of the game, things didn’t look very good, but not necessarily because we weren’t playing well. We just couldn’t make any shots.”
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