MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In its only exhibition of the season, West Virginia got off to a sluggish start Thursday against WVU Tech at the Coliseum.
Not much else went wrong for the Mountaineers, who outscored the Golden Bears by 70 points over the final three quarters and cruised to a 113-33 victory in front of 2,535.
WVU scored 57 points off the 46 turnovers it forced and scored 94 points after the opening quarter.
“We went full-court man the whole game,” West Virginia coach Mike Carey said. “I’m going to start getting them up and down. We have a trap in, but I didn’t want to trap. I just wanted to work on our man-to-man full-court. We did a pretty good job with that.”
While the Mountaineers’ starting five struggled to generate offense early, senior guard Jasmine Carson came off the bench and provided a spark.
Carson scored 10 points in the opening quarter, making 4-of-5 field goals and 2-of-3 from three-point range. Her first triple broke a 3-all tie nearing the midway point of the first quarter, and WVU outscored the Golden Bears 13-6 over the remainder of the period to hold a 19-9 lead.
“The thing about coming off the bench, I examine what’s not working and what is working, so when I come in the game, I know what to do,” Carson said. “I knew we weren’t scoring and I saw different ways where we weren’t getting the ball in the basket. So when I came in, if a spot was open, I got it and shot it.”
Utilizing the full-court pressure, the Mountaineers forced 17 second-quarter turnovers and scored the first 23 points in the frame, before a Eugenia Marcelli jump shot got the Golden Bears into double figure scoring 3:09 before halftime.
Yemiah Morris, a 6-foot-6 Mississippi State transfer, scored seven points in the second quarter and blocked a pair of shots, helping the Mountaineers take a 48-14 lead into halftime.
“Obviously they have a tremendous team,” WVU Tech coach Roger Hodge said. “A different level — size, speed, strength, all of those things we knew would be difficult. But we got better tonight from it, because they expose all your weaknesses. From that aspect, it was a good experience.”
The Mountaineers made 12-of-19 field goals in the third quarter to up their advantage to 78-26 entering the fourth. Carson, Esmery Martinez and Ari Gray paced WVU with six points apiece in the third.
WVU continued to shoot a high percentage down the stretch as it made 15-of-23 shots in the fourth quarter, a period in which sophomore guard Savannah Samuel scored a team-high eight points.
Carson led all players with 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting and 7-of-11 from beyond the arc.
Gray, a 6-foot transfer from Xavier, scored 14 points. Samuel and Morris added 13 points each, while 5-8 freshman guard JJ Quinerly added a spark off the bench with six points, eight steals and five assists.
No West Virginia starter scored in double figures.
“Our starting team didn’t do a good job moving the ball,” Carey said. “We held on to the ball too much, dribbled too much and tried to force stuff. But as players came in, they understood we need to move the ball. They were playing a sagging man and a gap man, so you’re not going to get all the way to the rim. You have to kick. Jaz got out of line when her man sagged and was able to step up and hit some shots. That was good to see.”
Brittney Justice had a team-high seven points in the loss.
The Mountaineers held a 46-25 rebounding advantage and assisted 29 of their 44 field goals, though they did have 16 turnovers.
West Virginia is out of action until it meets Saint Francis (Pa.) in its regular season opener November 16.
“We scheduled this early, because I wanted two weeks because we have eight new players,” Carey said. “It’s important I see what we need to work on, what our weaknesses are and then we have two weeks to get ready.”