MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A rigorous three-game stretch for West Virginia’s women’s basketball team began Wednesday with the team suffering its third loss this season as the Mountaineers fell apart offensively down the stretch and made only 3-of-19 fourth-quarter field-goal attempts in a 71-66 setback to 17th-ranked Texas Tech.
The result snapped a seven-game win streak for WVU (13-3, 3-1) and prevented the Mountaineers from having sole possession of first place in the Big 12 Conference as they and the Red Raiders (17-0, 4-0) were the only teams without a league loss leading into the matchup.
Things hardly get easier for WVU over the next week, with the Mountaineers slated to play at No. 11 Iowa State at 3 p.m. on Sunday, before welcome 13th-ranked TCU to Hope Coliseum next Wednesday.
“We know what’s coming behind it and what we have now. That one hurts. It stings a little bit,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “One that I thought we had. We led for 21 minutes of the game. We found rhythm and it kind of fell apart in the fourth.”
It was polar opposite quarters for WVU after halftime against Texas Tech as the Mountaineers initially made 10-of-13 shots during a 25-point third quarter to turn a three-point halftime deficit into a three-point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
Things went south down the stretch and five Red Raider points over a 7-second stretch with just inside 2 minutes to play enabled the visitors to turn a four-point deficit into a 62-61 lead.
“In games like this, every possession is so important,” Kellogg said. “I don’t know that we had that mindset throughout the game.”
In the Cyclones, Kellogg’s squad opposes a team that won its first 14 games but has dropped consecutive contests. A 72-70 home loss to Baylor last Sunday was followed with Wednesday’s surprising 71-63 setback at Cincinnati, which entered winless over its first three league games and 5-10 overall.
Iowa State relies heavily on the nation’s top scorer, 6-foot-3 junior center Audi Crooks. Crooks has been a force since her arrival in Ames and has a wide lead as the top scorer in the country at present with an average of 28.7 points.
She’s upped her scoring average every season, starting with 19.2 points as a freshman and 23.4 a season ago.
“We just didn’t play particularly well down the stretch. We have to learn and get better from it,” Kellogg said. “It doesn’t get easier as we move forward. The only choice is to get better, so we will do that.”