MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The WVU women’s basketball team fell 77-73 in overtime to Texas Tech, a loss that left coach Mike Carey lamenting “we gave that one away.”
Tied at 69 at the end of regulation, the Lady Raiders (15-4, 5-2 Big 12) used 6-of-8 shooting from the free-throw line to seal the win Tuesday night. The Mountaineers (11-7, 3-4 Big 12), who squandered a nine-point halftime lead, made only 2-of-9 attempts in the extra period.
“They dribble-drove us all night,” Carey said. “We gave that game away. We didn’t defend, we didn’t rebound and had opportunities in regulation to win it and we didn’t do it.”
Bria Holmes scored a career-best 17 points for the Mountaineers, 12 in the second half. Averee Fields matched Holmes’ 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Christal Caldwell added 16 points.
Christine Hyde had a game-high 19 points for Texas Tech, while Monique Smalls scored 17 and Chynna Brown and 16 points. The Lady Red Raiders outrebounded WVU 39-38.
“We were not blocking out. When we went small, we didn’t block out,” Carey said. “Everyone was just standing around under the rim and they out-hustled us on offensive rebounds. It is exactly what I told them in there. They had 19 offensive rebounds and they just out-hustled us, went after balls and we didn’t step out and box out.”
WVU led 38-29 lead, behind Averee Fields’ 13 first-half points and Crystal Leary ‘s eight first-half rebounds. WVU was out-rebounding the Lady Raiders 24-13 at the half, but a sluggish start to the closing half proved costly.
Texas Tech came out of the break with a Smalls layup that sparked a 14-3 run to give the Lady Raiders a 43-41 lead. A Christal Caldwell 3 at the 14:17 mark in the second half interrupted the run and gave WVU a one-point advantage, 44-43. Neither team could pull away by more than two points when Shauntal Nobles laid the ball in with only seven seconds remaining. Linda Stepney’s 3-point attempt fell off the mark sending the teams into overtime.