Carey: No. 17 West Virginia won’t be intimidated by No. 2 Baylor

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Even if the West Virginia women’s basketball team had held off Oklahoma on Wednesday, the 17th-ranked Mountaineers would still have been a major underdog at 8 p.m. Saturday against No. 2 Baylor.

The fact remains, though, the Mountaineers (13-2, 3-1 Big 12) suffered their worst loss of the season at the hands of the Sooners, thanks to a terrible shooting night and an even worse performance on defense against Oklahoma guard Taylor Robertson, who finished with eight 3-pointers and 31 points.

The loss was so bad, WVU head coach Mike Carey joked afterward that Baylor probably couldn’t wait for the Mountaineers to show up at the Ferrell Center.

“Baylor is probably glad we’re coming now,” he said. “We might get this plane for free. They might send us a charter.”

The task for WVU now is getting over that loss, while also getting prepared for the biggest game of the season.

“You’ve got to compete,” Carey said. “I don’t think any of our players will be scared to play Baylor.

“Some teams are beat before they even go in there. Our team will go in there and compete. It’s going to be a tough game, especially coming off the Oklahoma game. We’ll see how much heart we have.”

The Bears (14-1, 3-0) have won seven straight, including a 74-58 victory against then top-ranked Connecticut, a victory that ended the Huskies’ 98-game home winning streak.

The Bears only loss came against South Carolina — now the No. 1-ranked team in the country — on a neutral court in the U.S. Virgin Islands back in November.

“Baylor, in my opinion, may be better than they were last year and they won the national championship last year,” Carey said.

Led by sophomore forward NaLyssa Smith (16.7 ppg, 7.9 rpg) and the Big 12’s Preseason Player of the Year in center Lauren Cox (13.0 ppg, 7.4 rpg), the Bears have blown through Big 12 competition so far with an average margin of victory of 37 points per game.

“They have some great players,” Carey said. “We’re just going to have to go and play. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll be intimidated. We’ll go in there and compete.”

Baylor’s Big 12 margin of victory includes a 21-point win against Oklahoma, which just knocked off WVU, 73-49.

“We have to forget about this and bounce back and have two good days of practice and get ready for Baylor,” said WVU guard Tynice Martin, who was 1 for 12 shooting against Oklahoma and finished with eight points. “We can’t dwell on this. Hopefully, we’ll have our legs back and our energy back and we’ll be ready to go again.”

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