MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia held Iowa State to a season-low point total as the Mountaineers won their ninth consecutive game, 65-56 Wednesday night at the Coliseum. After dropping their first two Big 12 games in December, WVU is now 8-2 in league play.
The Mountaineers never trailed in the second half and held off a few mini-runs from the Cyclones late as they remained perfect in 2021.
“We’ve got a lot of games left,” said WVU head coach Mike Carey. “We just have to take them one at a time. This sets us up good but you are only as good as your last game. If we come out Saturday (at Texas), don’t play well and get beat, we have to start all over. I told you from the beginning, I like this team.”
Iowa State connected on just 28% (11-for-39) of their shots from 3-point range and 22-of-64 from the field.
“We did a good job of sitting down on them,” Carey said. “They were just pulling up and looking to kick. To me, Kari (Niblack) was the MVP. She did a great job on Ashley Joens.”
Neither team led by more than six points in a tightly-contested first half. West Virginia led 15-13 after the first quarter.
Both teams combined to go 1-for-18 from the floor to start the second quarter. Iowa State briefly took a two-point lead before the Mountaineers went on a 7-0 run. West Virginia took a 27-26 lead into the locker room. Aubrey and Ashley Joens combined for 19 first half points for the Cyclones.
West Virginia quickly built a nine-point lead early in the third quarter as they opened the second half on an 8-0 run. WVU led 48-41 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Mountaineers needed just three minutes in the fourth quarter to extend their lead to a dozen after Kysre Gondrezick scored five consecutive points, putting WVU up 58-46.
Iowa State crept with six points with three minutes to play, but the Mountaineers held on despite not making a field goal in the final four minutes.
Gondrezick led WVU with 24 points. “Most of her shots are good shots,” Carey said.
Madisen Smith scored 15 points. After a couple poor shooting games, Smith went 4-for-8 from the field.
“I am happy (Madisen) got herself in a rhythm,” Gondrezick said. “We need that. Any given night anybody can get hot. And we just have to read defenses and know who is on.”
Niblack was West Virginia’s third double-figure scorer. She had 11 points and 9 rebounds.
Blessing Ejiofor provided 16 productive minutes off the bench, pulling down six rebounds.
“We knew we were going to have to beat them on the boards,” said Smith. “They shot a lot of threes, which meant long rebounds. Having Blessing coming off the bench to get those rebounds and Kari, was great.”
Ashley Joens was Iowa State’s (11-7, 6-4 Big 12) lone double digit scorer.
With the win, West Virginia (14-2, 8-2 Big 12) remains a half game behind Baylor for first place in the Big 12. West Virginia returns to action Saturday as they look to sweep the season series with Texas. Tip time in Austin is set for 8 p.m.
(Mike Carey postgame press conference)