MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia never led in Wednesday’s matchup with No. 24 Texas at the WVU Coliseum.
Still, despite sputtering offensively for much of the contest, the Mountaineers stuck with the Longhorns and trailed by three points entering the fourth quarter and five with inside 5 minutes to play.
Ultimately, the Mountaineers couldn’t muster enough offense, and they were held to one field goal over the final 5-plus minutes in a 69-56 loss to the Longhorns.
“We competed at a really high level,” first-year West Virginia head coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “Texas is a very good program and they did some things that really frustrated us on both ends of the court. Their second chance points really hurt us and us missing 10 free throws really hurt us. Minimize those, shrink them down and it’s a different scenario.”
West Virginia shot a respectable 42 percent (21 for 50), but made only 3-of-18 attempts from 3-point range and 11-of-21 free throws. The Mountaineers (14-6, 5-4) turned it over 18 times and generated only five second-chance points as a result of being limited to four offensive rebounds.
Perhaps no statistic signified the degree of difficulty West Virginia had generating offense more than the Mountaineers being limited to three assists.
“Just focused on defense and trusted ourselves to be able to guard the ball, and trust our teammates if they got past us,” said Texas’ Sonya Morris, who scored a game-high 17 points. “The game plan is to always make them score over us and not get by us. We did well with that tonight.”
Still, Texas (17-6, 8-2) left Morgantown with a victory in large part because of the first and last 5 minutes of the matchup.
West Virginia missed seven of its first eight shots while the Longhorns built a 13-2 advantage as five different Texas players dented the scoring column over the first 3:52.
“We got great shots,” Plitzuweit said. “Some wide open looks on the perimeter, some shots in the lane that we really good shots and some layup and free throw opportunities that we didn’t make.”
WVU got consecutive triples from guards JJ Quinerly and Madisen Smith, although Texas rattled off six straight points to stretch its lead back to 11.
The Mountaineers closed the opening frame on a 6-0 spurt keyed by five bench points, including a conventional three-point play from guard Sarah Bates 4 seconds before time expired.
“We play together a lot in practice, so we’ve been finding that chemistry a lot,” Bates said. “It was exciting to show what we’ve been doing in practice. On nights like this with people in foul trouble, it’s important the bench brings energy and helps the team out.”
WVU’s offensive struggles resurfaced in the second quarter as the Mountaineers didn’t produce a point in the period until Quinerly’s jumper 4:36 before halftime.
That enabled WVU to trail 24-16, but the Mountaineers never got the deficit closer over the remainder of the opening half. Instead, Shaylee Gonzales converted a layup off a turnover late in the half to up the Texas lead to 11, before Bates answered with a driving bucket just before the buzzer sounded to send the Mountaineers to halftime trailing 31-22.
WVU made only 8-of-25 shots and 4-of-8 free throws to go with 13 turnovers in the first half. Texas, which made only 3-of-9 foul shots in that same span, turned it over 10 times as well, which prevented the Longhorns from having a larger lead.
“We felt like at half we should’ve been up more,” Texas head coach Vic Shaefer said.
The Mountaineers played their best basketball during the third quarter when they made 10-of-14 shots and had seven different scorers to draw closer.
After falling behind 36-24, consecutive buckets from Kyah Watson, Quinerly and Jayla Hemingway enabled the Mountaineers to cut their deficit in half.
Texas quickly countered with a 7-0 surge capped by Taylor Jones’ layup for a 43-30 advantage, but WVU refused to give in.
Bates’ trey at the 2:21 mark of the quarter made it 46-37, before the Mountaineers accounted for eight unanswered points to end the third trailing 48-45. Reserves provided all the scoring in the quarter-ending spurt — one Danni Nichols free throw, Samuel’s conventional three-point play and two Bates layups.
“Defensively, we were pretty good except for the third quarter,” Schaefer said.
Texas got a conventional three-point play from DeYona Gaston, which combined with Jones’ basket from close range, allowed the Longhorns to up their advantage to eight 1:01 into the final period.
After a Morris jumper stretched UT’s advantage to 57-48 at the 7-minute mark, Quinerly and Watson each scored to bring the Mountaineers to within five.
But the Longhorns answered with five unanswered points to double their lead, getting a pivotal follow-up basket from Khadija Faye, Rori Harmon’s jumper and one Gonzales free throw to lead 62-52 with 3:48 left.
“When they cut it to three, I saw us answer the bell,” Schaefer said. “That’s a really good sign from this group. We’ve had issues with a lack of toughness at times.”
WVU got no closer than eight down the stretch and the Longhorns scored seven of the game’s final nine points to regain their double-digit lead.
Texas had 14 of the game’s 18 offensive rebounds and 17 of 22 second-chance points.
“They have very good athletes and they do a good job of tipping balls and keeping it alive,” Plitzuweit said. “We didn’t do as good a job as we needed to obviously. That can be a difference in the game.”
Morris scored 17 to lead all players, 12 of which came after halftime. Harmon also had 12 second-half points as part of her strong all-around effort with 14 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals.
“Rori was really good the second half,” Schaefer said. “Not really good the first half, but bounced back and led our team and made some great decisions.”
Jones had 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while Gonzales was a fourth double-figure scorer and scored 11, all but one of which came over the first two quarters.
Gaston’s nine rebounds were a game-high and keyed Texas’ 39-25 edge on the glass.
Bates scored 12 points to lead WVU and Quinerly scored 11 in 23 minutes before fouling out.
“Not having JJ to attack is something that hurts us,” Plitzuweit said. “We had to play a major stretch of the game without her and she’s someone that can continue to attack and make things happen.”
Watson added nine points and a team-best five boards in defeat. Smith, returning from a one-game absence due to a sprained ankle, logged 35-plus minutes but was limited to five points on 2-of-8 shooting and did not record an assist for only the second time this season.