MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The Tennessee women’s basketball team will play for just the second time inside the WVU Coliseum at 2 p.m. Sunday, in a match-up between two programs looking to possibly break into the national rankings.
The game is part of the annual Big 12/SEC Challenge and the Mountaineers (3-0) will be gunning for their first-ever victory against the Volunteers (2-0).
No fans will be permitted inside the Coliseum for this game.
“We’ll play a lot better than we did today and we won’t take Tennessee for granted, like we did today,” WVU head coach Mike Carey after the Mountaineers’ 80-51 victory against North Alabama on Tuesday. “We may have to go big. We may have to go with Kari (Niblack) at (power forward) and Esmery (Martinez) at (small forward). Esmery can do that. We can match their size. LSU is very big and we were able to match their size.”
In the win against North Alabama, Martinez scored 17 points and grabbed 22 rebounds, marking the 12th time in school history a WVU women’s player had at least 15 points and 20 rebounds in the same game.
“Esmery rebounded the heck out of the ball,” Carey said. “She’s a sophomore and she’ll just continue to get better.”
The Volunteers have wins this season against Western Kentucky and Eastern Tennessee State.
Junior guard Rae Burrell averaged 19 points in those two victories and shot 4 of 10 from 3-point range.
Senior forward Rennia Davis averages 12.5 points and 7.5 rebounds.
While Martinez recorded a historic double-double against North Alabama, the Mountaineers have been led by senior guard Kysre Gondrezick, who has scored at least 20 points in all three of WVU’s games, while shooting 56% (9 of 16) from 3-point range.
“Kysre has been really efficient,” Carey said. “She had 20 points and then gets assists and steals and all of that.”
The game will be a sort of homecoming for Tennessee sophomore centerd Emily Saunders, a former Wyoming East standout. Saunders is has scored three points and grabbed five rebounds in eight minutes of action this season.
TWEET @bigjax3211
