Pardee's 3s Power No. 20 WVU to 17th Win of Season

Wednesday, January 24

Morgantown, W.Va

7:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

17-4, 5-4

Texas Tech

7-13, 1-8

Texas Tech

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

January 24, 2018 09:53 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Season Stats Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Katrina Pardee hit four early 3s and finished with 23 points to power 20^th-ranked West Virginia to an 82-52 victory over Texas Tech Wednesday night at the Coliseum.

Pardee, a junior guard from Cedar Park, Texas, made six of her nine 3-point attempts and finished two points shy of her career high of 25 scored earlier this year in a home win against Coppin State.

West Virginia (17-4, 5-4) hit 13-of-24 from beyond the arc and never trailed in the game.

"We started out well shooting the ball with Katrina," West Virginia coach Mike Carey said. "We did a good job getting her the ball when she was hot."

Texas Tech (7-13, 1-8), lost for sixth time in seven outings since interim coach Shimmy Gray-Miller took over for Candi Whitaker following the Red Raiders' 98-57 loss to Oklahoma State back on Dec. 28.

Tech's lone conference victory came a week ago at Kansas, 68-56.

The Mountaineers, ranked 19^th in this week's USA Today coaches' poll, earned its fifth conference victory of the season to remain ½ game behind fourth-place TCU in the Big 12 standings with third-ranked Baylor looming on Sunday afternoon in Morgantown.

The way West Virginia shot the ball from beyond the arc and pressured the Red Raiders into committing 30 turnovers tonight was encouraging, but WVU's post defense will be a major concern for Carey as he begins preparing for the league-leading Bears.

Texas Tech outrebounded West Virginia, 32-25, and made 60.6 percent of its shot attempts inside the 3-point arc. Six-six sophomore forward Erin Degrate scored a team-high 20 points on eight-of-10 shooting, most of those coming on soft lobs in the lane.

Six-four senior center Jada Terry was the only other Red Raider player to reach double figures with 10.

"We did not do a good job of defending the paint and the good news is we've got Baylor coming in with (Kalani) Brown at 6-7," Carey remarked. "Obviously, we've got a lot of work to do on our paint defense.

"A couple of times we were on the wrong side and we let them ride us up and didn't adjust our feet and didn't get where we belong," Carey added. "We didn't on the weak side and we didn't get pressure on the ball. There were several things and if you let Baylor lob that ball into Brown the way they did it's going to be a long night."

Chania Ray and Teana Muldrow contributed 18 points each for West Virginia, 12 of Ray's coming in the second half, while Naomi Davenport added 14.

All eight players who dressed tonight saw double-digit minutes with Ray the only player exceeding 35. Pardee, who made seven of her 11 field goal attempts, played 34 minutes as did Davenport.

"Once we got up 20 we kind of coasted on both ends," Carey noted. "That's okay. I tried to play a lot of people … well, eight - that's what I had on the bench."

West Virginia outscored Texas Tech in every quarter: 24-10 in the first, 17-13 in the second, 30-19 in the third and 11-10 in the fourth. Both teams went scoreless for nearly four minutes of the final quarter before Davenport's steal turned into a Ray fast-break basket with 6:13 left in the game.

Last year, the two teams split their games with both teams winning on their home floors.

"I'm proud of our girls," Carey said. "We only won 17 regular season games last year and with all of these injuries we've won 17 now and we'll win more. We'll just keep fighting and doing what we do."

Sunday's Baylor game will tip off at 3 p.m. and will be televised nationally on FS1.

Briefly: Tonight's win was West Virginia's 400^th all-time at the WVU Coliseum … Muldrow's 18 points tonight moved her past the late Olivia Bradley (1982-85) into 10^th place on WVU's all-time scoring list with 1,551 points … with eight regular season games and postseason play still remaining, Muldrow has a shot of reaching Talisha Hargis (1995-98) for fourth place with 1,751 career points … the 13 made 3-pointers tonight were a season high for West Virginia topping the 11 made at Oklahoma State last Wednesday … the Mountaineers, leading the Big 12 with an average of 10.7 steals per game, made 15 tonight - one shy of their season-high 16 produced twice this year against Central Connecticut State and Morgan State ... … West Virginia forced a season-high 30 turnovers ... Pardee's six 3-pointers are tied for fourth-most made in a game by a WVU player … WVU had a season-low 11 turnovers … the 30-point win was the largest margin of victory in Big 12 play for the Mountaineers this season.