WVU Women’s Basketball Accomplishes Rare Feat

WVU Women’s Basketball came out on fire in the first period of their home game against Houston on Wednesday night, shutting the Cougars out for the first 10:54 of the game.

Houston missed their first 13 shots before a bucket finally sank, while the Mountaineers didn’t commit a single foul until Cougars’ forward Maliyah Johnson broke the ice with a layup less than a minute into the second period—further limiting Houston’s chances to score.

The Mountaineers‘ aggressive defense did their part in securing the milestone—the first of its kind in program history—forcing seven turnovers in the first ten minutes. WVU Women’s Basketball built a 19-0 before Johnson ended the streak, and lead 35-10 at the half after another dominant period.

Houston sits at 11-5 on the season and averaged 74.9 points entering this game, a further testament to the strength of West Virginia’s defense.

A quarter-long shutout is a rare feat, but not an impossible one, since the NCAA switched to a period format for women’s basketball ahead of the 2015-16 season. It’s also one that correlates with a great deal of success.

This year’s reigning champions, the LSU Tigers, pulled it off in December against McNeese State. South Carolina did it against Texas in 2021 to secure a spot in the Final Four, one of the most recent times it happened in a game between two programs belonging to a major conference. While the Gamecocks fell to Stanford in the next round, they ended up winning a national title of their own in 2022.