MORGANTOWN — To bounce back from three-straight double-digit losses, WVU women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit thinks her team needs to hone in on what it does best.
“We’ve got to do a really good job of making other teams uncomfortable,” Plitzuweit said Thursday. “For us, our calling card has to be our defensive intensity, awareness and finishing. That’s something, at times, we have shown at a really high level. It’s hard to sustain that throughout (a game) completely.”
The Mountaineers (14-8, 5-6 Big 12) are in the midst of their worst losing streak of the season, a three-game skid with double-digit losses to Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
WVU has made its mark as a defensive team this season, ranking second in the Big 12, allowing just 60.4 points per game. The offense has been much less impressive, ranking second-last with just 66.8 points per game.
In all three recent losses, WVU’s offense seemed to fizzle out in the fourth quarter. Against Texas and Oklahoma State, the Mountaineers only managed 11 points in the final frame and against Oklahoma, only 14.
“We didn’t do a good job of finishing plays in either of those two contests (in Oklahoma) and that’s something we’ve got to get a lot better at,” Plitzuweit said. “If you go to the Oklahoma State game as an example, there were times when they didn’t make shots and then they got offensive rebounds and putbacks, and those are the things we’ve got to get a lot better at.”
Part of the problem, according to Plitzuweit, is WVU’s low offensive output forces the Mountaineers to be flawless on defense. When they’re not, the team doesn’t have the offense to make up the difference.
“Sometimes you need a margin for error,” Plitzuweit said. “You’re playing against players (in the Big 12) that can score at a really high level — you’re not going to take everything away. Even when you defend at a really high level, they can still make shots, and so then you’ve got to be able to answer. Ultimately, when you don’t have the ability to have a margin of error because you’re not a team that can just score at will, then every defensive possession just means that much more.”
While the Mountaineers know they won’t get a stop on every trip up the floor, Plitzuweit thinks the stops they do get need to be translated into offensive opportunities.
“For us, a lot of it stems from our ability to get stops,” she said. “Then you can put your offensive team in a situation where you are in attack mode and it’s a little bit easier to attack in transition.”
The Mountaineers will try to break their losing streak Saturday when they welcome Iowa State (15-6, 7-4) to the Coliseum. The Cyclones defeated WVU 70-50 in Ames last month, but are riding their own two-game losing skid.
“We’ve got to do a great job of being highly competitive and finding ways to stay with plays longer than our competition,” Plitzuweit said. “That’s something we’re going to be challenged to do by Iowa State, because that’s something they’re known for.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. on ESPN+. It will also be WVU’s annual Pink Game as the team will don pink jerseys in support of breast cancer.
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