FORT WORTH, Texas – Naomi Davenport and Teana Muldrow produced monster games while playing extended minutes and Katrina Pardee’s 3-point shooting sparked a fourth-quarter run as No. 9 West Virginia edged TCU 87-82 in Thursday night’s Big 12 women’s basketball opener.
In a game that featured nine ties and six lead changes, the Mountaineers (13-0, 1-0) yielded 30 points more than their defensive average as injuries limited Mike Carey to a seven-player rotation.
Davenport scored a career-high 32 points on 13-of-23 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in 39 minutes. Muldrow played every second while contributing 20 points and a career-best 17 rebounds.
Pardee, plagued by early foul trouble, scored 15 of her 17 points in the final period when West Virginia outscored the Frogs 34-26.
“We’re just really short-handed because of injuries,” Carey said. “I’m really proud of the girls. They really sucked it up and did a good job there at the end.
“I give our girls a lot of credit. If you look at the minutes they played, several of them played 40, 39 minutes. That’s tough.”
Amber Ramirez scored 21 points and Amy Okwonkwo had 17 for TCU (9-3, 0-1), which committed 16 turnovers but only four after halftime.
“We don’t take any moral victories, because that’s not where our program is at,” said Frogs coach Raegan Pebley, whose team could not maintain a 58-53 lead early in the fourth quarter.
“West Virginia is the No. 9-ranked team for a reason and they’re good. Whenever you get a good team on their heels, and you’re threatening to win the game, they’re going to respond.”
Point guard Chania Ray finished with 11 points with eight assists and eight rebounds for the Mountaineers, who won the rebounding battle 43-36 and shot 46.5 percent on the night.
TCU held a 23-3 edge in bench scoring.