WACO, Texas
– The West Virginia women's basketball team heads to Waco, Texas, to finish out the regular season with a Monday night tilt at No. 3 Baylor. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. EST inside the Ferrell Center on FS1.
Ron Thulin and Brenda VanLengen have the television call for FS1, while
Dan Zangrilli and
Ayana Dunning have the radio call for the Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG. Fans can listen on WMMN 95.7 FM/920 AM in the Morgantown/Fairmont area, the WVU Gameday App and WVUsports.com.
WVU (20-9, 8-9) and Baylor (27-1, 17-0) meet for the second time this season and the 16th time overall on Monday. Baylor leads the series 12-3 and won the previous meeting this season in Morgantown. The Mountaineers are 1-5 in Waco but are 2-1 at neutral sites. Sitting at No. 3 in both polls this year, Baylor has been nationally ranked for 14 of 15 meetings, while the Mountaineers have been nationally ranked for six prior meetings.
No. 20 West Virginia dropped an 83-72 contest to the No. 3 Lady Bears on Jan. 28 in Morgantown. The Mountaineers led the Lady Bears, 47-41, at the half, but Baylor outscored WVU, 17-8, in the fourth quarter for the win. Junior guard/forward
Naomi Davenport had 27 points before fouling out, while senior forward
Teana Muldrow had 21 points in the loss. Senior guard
Chania Ray just missed a double-double with 12 points and 8 assists.
WVU is coming off a 79-69 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday at home. The Mountaineers ended their home slate with a 10-6 record in overall play and 3-9 in Big 12 contests at the WVU Coliseum. Senior forward Muldrow led the team in scoring with 23 points, marking her 16th 20-point performance of the season. Ray registered a pair of assists, pushing her into the all-time top 10 at West Virginia with 416 career assists in just two and a half seasons. Junior guard
Katrina Pardee (14) and Davenport (10) finished in double figures as well. WVU shot better than 60 percent from downtown - their highest percentage in Big 12 play and the second-best overall.
The 2017-18 season marks WVU's sixth season in the Big 12 after joining in the summer of 2012. The Mountaineers have won a share of a regular-season title (2014) and one tournament title (2017). Entering the final regular-season game of the year, WVU is 60-47 in the Big 12. The team's best showing came in 2014 when the Mountaineers went 16-2 to share the regular-season crown with Baylor. West Virginia also posted double-digit league wins in 2016 with 12.
Baylor claimed its eighth consecutive regular-season title one week ago. The Lady Bears enter Monday's game with a 27-1 overall record and 17-0 mark in league play, coming off an 85-53 win at TCU. They are undefeated at home at 15-0. Baylor is averaging 87.0 points per game and 49.0 rebounds per game and shooting 51.3 percent from the field, 37.3 percent from beyond the arc and 72.3 percent at the free-throw line.
Four of five starters average in double figures, led by Kalani Brown at 19.9 points per game. Brown averages a double-double per contest with a team-best 10.1 rebounds per game. Lauren Cox averages 14.7 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, while Kristy Wallace (13.1) and Dekeiya Cohen (12.0) also average in double-figure scoring. Additionally, Wallace also boasts a team-high 69 blocks.
After returning from Waco, WVU will prep for the trip to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for the 2018 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. The tournament is scheduled to run March 2-5 at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
