The Mountaineer women’s basketball team won its first ever Big 12 game on Wednesday night, beating Texas 53-49 at the Coliseum.
“It is finally good to get a win,” head coach Mike Carey said after the game. “They worked hard in practice and again we didn’t play well, but we played well enough to get the win. Now we have to build on that.”
The Mountaineers (9-5, 1-2) led by only one with 35 seconds remaining and held on for the win after initially leading 26-20 after the half.
“We came out in the second half lackadaisical and standing around,” Carey explained. “When they finally took the lead, I think they went up three or four, then we started picking it up again. I told our girls that we had to win a game.”
Neither team shot the ball overly well — West Virginia hit 36.7 percent from the floor while Texas made 31.7 percent of its shots.
West Virginia’s Ayana Dunning led all players with a season-best 19 points to go along with seven rebounds and three steals, while Christal Caldwell chipped in 16 points, including a pair of threes, five rebounds and two steals.
The Mountaineers take to the road as they face Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan., at 4 p.m. on Saturday Jan. 12.