Box Score MANHATTAN, Kan.
– Led by a double-double from senior forward
Teana Muldrow, all five starters finished in double-figure scoring as the West Virginia women's basketball team avenged an earlier loss to K-State with a 75-66 win at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas, on Tuesday.
The victory pushed the Mountaineers to 20-8 on the season and 8-8 in Big 12 play. K-State falls to 13-14 and 5-11 with the loss.
Muldrow netted 19 points and 11 rebounds for her third straight double-double and her 13th of the year. She moved into sixth place all-time with 1,670 career points. Senior forward
Kristina King tied her career high for the first time since 2016 with 16 points, just missing a double-double with nine rebounds. Junior guard
Naomi Davenport added 15 points, while junior guard
Katrina Pardee had 13 and senior guard
Chania Ray had 10.
Muldrow also had all three of the Mountaineers' blocks, while Davenport had a trio of steals.
WVU shot 54.2 percent from the field, and outrebounded the Wildcats 37-30. Led by Davenport and Muldrow with four dishes each, the Mountaineers totaled 16 on the night.
"It was a sloppy game," coach
Mike Carey said. "I thought, at times, we moved the ball well. We had 15 assists on 26 field goals, so that's pretty good. We had five girls score in double figures. Kansas State didn't quit. They came back and made it close at the end and we were able to hit some foul shots."
The Mountaineers used a pair of 3-pointers from Ray and another from Pardee to overcome an early K-State lead, taking a 12-5 advantage midway through the first quarter. A 6-0 run by the Wildcats whittled the WVU lead down to one, but jumpers from Muldrow and King put the Mountaineers on top, 17-11, as the quarter came to a close.
It was another slow start for West Virginia in the second quarter, as back-to-back K-State jumpers cut the Mountaineer advantage to two at 17-15. Back-to-back layups by Davenport pushed WVU ahead by six with 7:27 to play in the frame. The teams traded buckets the rest of the quarter as West Virginia used a free throw by King and a late jumper from Muldrow to keep the lead at six, 30-24, at the half.
WVU started the third quarter on a 4-0 run before Ray added two more points at the free-throw line after she was fouled attempting a three, pushing the Mountaineers' lead into double digits at 36-26. Pardee followed a Wildcat three with one of her own, keeping the advantage at 10, 41-31, with 6:37 to play in the quarter. A jumper and a triple from K-State cut the deficit to five, but a trio of layups from King in the second part of the frame kept West Virginia on top, 51-41, heading into the fourth.
The Mountaineers picked up points at the charity stripe early in the fourth as Muldrow and Pardee both went 2-for-2. After a pair of Wildcat free throws, Muldrow put in a layup to give the Mountaineers a 59-44 lead with 7:34 to play, tying the largest lead of the day for WVU. K-State would then knock down three more free throws and a layup to cut the West Virginia lead to 10, making the score 59-49 with 6:50 to play. Muldrow and Pardee would again respond by making a pair of free throws each and Davenport made a layup to give WVU the 65-52 edge at the media timeout. Following the timeout, the Wildcats went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 65-59, before Davenport hit a jumper at the 3:14 mark to give the Mountaineers the eight-point lead. WVU would hold steady in the closing minutes as Muldrow knocked down her seventh and eighth free throw of the night with 36 seconds remaining to give WVU the 75-66 win.
West Virginia returns to the WVU Coliseum on Saturday to face Oklahoma State. Prior to the 1 p.m. EST tipoff, the Mountaineers will celebrate Ray, King and Muldrow as part of Senior Day.