West Virginia Women Hold off Visiting Texas Tech for 83-78 Win

The West Virginia University women’s basketball team won its third Big 12 game of the season on Wednesday, beating visiting Texas Tech 83-78 at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown.

Kysre Gondrezick led the Mountaineers (9-2, 3-2 Big 12) in scoring for the fourth consecutive game with 19 points while sophomore forward Esmery Martinez finished with her sixth consecutive double-double at 18 points and 15 rebounds. Jasmine Carson hit double-figures in scoring for the second time in her career with 13 points in nine minutes against the Red Raiders (6-6, 1-5 Big 12)

“[It was a] very sloppy game,” WVU coach Mike Carey said. “Thank goodness for our bench. We scored 30 points off the bench. If we didn’t have that, we would’ve (lost) tonight. We were two steps slow, they were dribble-driving us and getting anything they wanted.

“Offensively, we took a bunch of bad shots, wouldn’t reverse the ball. We could’ve kicked it inside all night, but our guards were not patient. They took too many early shots on the shot clock. It wasn’t good. I thought (junior guard) Jasmine Carson came off the bench and did a great job. I thought [redshirt sophomore center] Rochelle Norris came off the bench and played extremely hard. Then she got tired a little bit and started reaching, but I thought she did a good job off the bench too.”

WVU hit 32 of its 71 field goal attempts (45.1 percent) on field goals Wednesday and out-rebounded Texas Tech 44-26 thanks in large part to the big game from Martinez.

For the Red Raiders, Vivian Gray led the team in scoring with 28 points while Naje Murray chipped in with 18 points in the loss.

The Mountaineers are scheduled to be back in action on Saturday with Oklahoma State visiting Morgantown. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum with the broadcast available via streaming on Big 12 Now.