WVU Women’s Basketball Stifles No. 24 Oklahoma State

WVU Women’s Basketball stifled the No. 24 Oklahoma State Cowgirls 54-37 in Morgantown on Saturday, Feb. 1, avenging a January loss in Stillwater with one of their best defensive performances of the season.

The No. 21 ranked Mountaineers allowed just 11 made shots and two assists on the day, thoroughly dominating a Cowgirls team that entered play ranked No. 20 in the nation with an average of 80.6 points scored per game. Oklahoma State shot a miserable 21.2 percent from the floor and made just two of 23 three-point attempts. A 13-of-15 clip from the charity stripe prevented the game from looking like slaughter.

Both teams took time to get going offensively, knotted at 10-6 after the first period, a score better suited for the gridiron. After a week off for the Mountaineers, who last took the court on Saturday, Jan. 25 in a 77-62 loss at Arizona — and a 12 p.m. tipoff — rust wasn’t a surprise.

Gritty Defense

Oklahoma State’s defense wasn’t a slouch either, turning the Mountaineers over 20 times (West Virginia, for their part, forced 21 turnovers) and allowed just a 40.4 shooting percentage from the field, even though WVU’s shooting improved as the game went on.

Sydney Shaw led West Virginia with 18 points scored as foul trouble limited the effectiveness of JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison.

The Cowgirls took a 6-3 lead in the first three minutes of play. From there the Mountaineers’ defense tightened, not allowing another made shot for more than 11 minutes of game time. By that point, West Virginia led 16-6, surviving their own shooting woes thanks to their patented full court press.

While the Mountaineers never managed to look consistent on offense, neither did they let the Cowgirls back in the game. A Tenin Magassa jumper closed Oklahoma State’s deficit to nine points with 3:29 to play, but the Mountaineers closed out the game on an 8-0 run, wiping away any chance at a comeback.

The home stand continues for the WVU Women’s Basketball team at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5 when they host the Kansas Jayhawks.