MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s women’s basketball team has offered differing responses to losses this season.
How the Mountaineers fare moving forward from the disappointment of Wednesday’s 51-50 setback to 10th-ranked TCU will go a long way in determining the trajectory of their 2025-26 campaign.
Were it not for a Marta Suarez three-pointer as time expired, West Virginia (14-4, 4-2) would’ve claimed a marquee victory over the Horned Frogs at Hope Coliseum on a night the home team was held to a season-low point total.
“West Virginia played incredible. We truly stole this one,” TCU head coach Mark Campbell said.
From a defensive perspective, both teams could’ve hardly been better.
WVU made 15 field goals on 28.3 percent shooting and was 1 for 8 on triples, while turning it over 23 times. The Mountaineers’ top offensive trait was their ability to get to the basket and draw fouls, which they turned into 19 points off of 24 free-throw attempts.
The Horned Frogs shot 19 for 52 and 7 of 18 on threes, made all six of their foul shots and had 24 turnovers.
“It wasn’t the defensive end when it was all said and done,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “It was the offensive end that probably cost us.”
Still, the Mountaineers overcame a 29-15 deficit late in the first half to close to within six at halftime, and by the time the third quarter was half over, West Virginia had its first lead by running off 16 points altogether after trailing by 14.
Down the stretch, Kierra ‘MeMe’ Wheeler scored inside to give WVU a 47-46 advantage, one that grew to three with 11 seconds left when Jordan Harrison made a challenged shot.
But after Donovyn Hunter made two free throws, Harrison split a pair of foul shots, setting the stage for the winning bucket from Suarez.
Before connecting from deep, Suarez was 3 for 18 and had missed all five treys.
“You’re not supposed to win when you shoot 28 percent and make one three,” Kellogg said. “We got to the free-throw line quite a bit and shot it better than we typically had, but we defended well enough to give ourselves a chance on a night that offensively we were not great.”
For WVU, the loss marked the end of what would widely be considered the team’s toughest three-game stretch this season, all of which came against top 20 competition. It began January 7 with a 71-66 home loss to Texas Tech, a contest that saw the Red Raiders outscore the Mountaineers, 14-5, over the final 1:59.
The Mountaineers then bounced back in a big way with Sunday’s 83-70 victory at then-No. 11 Iowa State, before coming up short against TCU.
The most recent result leaves WVU in a three-way tie for fourth place and two games back of league leader Texas Tech, the only unbeaten team in the Big 12.
Kellogg’s team next plays Sunday at Cincinnati followed by welcoming Arizona State on Wednesday for its lone remaining home game in January.
A win over the Bearcats is required to avoid the Mountaineers’ second two-game skid this season.
“I like where we’re at. We had opportunities to win all three and we did not,” Kellogg said. “That’s what it is about, so we have to figure out how to win these games, and especially at home. We need to take care of our home court. We still have to go to TCU. We’ll keep getting better.
“In the long run, we’ll have a chance to close these out. We have to work on a few things. We have to get better and get the right mindset. We don’t have ranked teams now in front of us, but we still have quality Big 12 opponents. We have to get dialed in. That’s where I’m interested to see now. Do we come back in a couple days and have the right mindset?”