The Texas Tech Lady Raiders dropped another Big 12 game to the West Virginia Mountaineers 73-62 Wednesday at the United Supermarkets Arena.
The Mountaineers have now won 11 in a row against the Lady Raiders.
Senior guard Madisen Smith led West Virginia with 21 points, all coming from either three-point shots or free throws. Freshman JJ Quinerly and junior Esmery Martinez had 13 points of their own.
Smith, Quinerly and junior Jayla Hemingway each had five assists, while Martinez added seven rebounds.
Super senior Vivian Gray scored 24 points to continue a six-game streak of scoring at least 20 points. She also added three steals.
Both Tech head coach Krista Gerlich and West Virginia head coach Mike Carey gave a lot of praise to Gray.
“Obviously, she’s an All-American for a reason,” Gerlich said. “She puts up great numbers and fights through a lot of contact to be able to get the ball in the hole. I think that she’s playing her best basketball right now and really with a great focus and great mindset, and she’s a tremendous player, and we’re lucky to have her on our team.”
Taylah Thomas, another Tech super senior, had just seven points but added 10 rebounds. The team had just 30 in total as they were outrebounded by West Virginia (35).
West Virginia was without leading scorer KK Deans, the junior guard who suffered an injury Jan. 29 in their game against Texas. She scored 15 against the Lady Raiders earlier in January.
Tech has had an injury bug of their own, however. They have only played seven quarters this season with all twelve of their players active.
Tech drops to 10-16 on the season and 3-12 in Big 12 play. The Lady Raiders have lost nine of their last 10 games and still do not have a win over an unranked Big 12 team.
West Virginia wins the season series and improves to a game under .500 at 12-13 overall and 5-10 in the Big 12.
1H: WVU takes every open shot
Tech got up 5-2 early, but Martinez led West Virginia on a 10-0 run over just 1:26 to shock the Lady Raiders, and Tech never really recovered.
Gray was able to break a scoring drought that lasted over four minutes with a mid-range pull-up jumper, then super senior Taylah Thomas made one of her own to cut the WVU lead to 4.
That was as close as Tech would get in the first half as Quinerly and Martinez continued to lead the team along with key triples from Madisen Smith and assists from Jayla Hemingway.
West Virginia ended the half shooting 54.5% from deep, while Texas Tech could muster just 33.3% from the three-point line.
Gerlich said she didn’t know why the team was slow to start the game.
“If I knew, it wouldn’t happen, right?” Gerlich said. “I don’t know, I’m disappointed because I thought our kids were really ready for this fight. I thought that they were ready to come in and really battle for a win on their home court, and I feel like that we let them kind of sucker-punch us a little bit.”
2H: Valiant fourth-quarter comeback, but not enough for Tech
The second half was a much closer affair.
After West Virginia’s Blessing Ejiofor made a bucket to give West Virginia a 20-point lead, Thomas answered with a layup for Tech. The Lady Raiders would cut it to 15 as they didn’t let West Virginia score for almost four minutes.
Once they did, however, it became a shootout, with six straight possessions combined between the teams as the score inflated before the fourth quarter.
Super senior Lexy Hightower started to get going for the Lady Raiders, and Gray’s efficiency was fantastic as she shot 5-for-7 in the second half with 15 points.
Senior Bryn Gerlich drained two free throws and a triple midway through the fourth quarter, and suddenly, it was a ballgame and the West Virginia lead was cut to 59-54.
The 14-0 run was capped by a Gray jump shot with 4:06 left, but it was just too little, too late for Texas Tech.
Smith answered for WVU with a three-pointer to put the Mountaineers back up 62-56, and they continued to do just enough to stay ahead. Smith made multiple free throws as the game turned into a foul battle to win the game.
Krista Gerlich said she thinks so much of her players, but she said they didn’t fight from the opening tip and got down too much early.
“I’m proud of the girls for changing their mindset at halftime, and I thought they came out and fought harder going into the fourth quarter,” Krista Gerlich said, “but we can’t dig ourselves a hole like that in the first half.”
Up Next
The Lady Raiders will have a tougher test Saturday at 1 p.m. as they go to Ames, Iowa, to play the No. 9 Iowa State Cyclones. Iowa State beat Tech in Lubbock 72-60 on Jan. 18.
Loading ...