Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Martin Giving WVU a Big Boost at the Right Time
January 15, 2019 04:33 PM | Women's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Surging West Virginia is getting its best player to play her best at the right time of the season.
Junior guard Tyince Martin is coming off a 20-point performance in this past Sunday afternoon's 66-55 win at Oklahoma, the Mountaineers' second win in a row and 11ththis season.
It's the second straight game the preseason All-Big 12 choice has surpassed the 20-point mark to share Big 12 Co-Player of the Week honors with Baylor's Juicy Landrum.
In West Virginia's 67-58 win against Oklahoma State earlier in the week, Martin erupted for 21 points to help West Virginia to its first conference victory of the season after dropping games at TCU and against Texas.
"I think she's starting to work a little bit harder to get open," West Virginia coach Mike Carey said before Tuesday afternoon's practice. "The second half against Oklahoma, every time she caught the ball they double teamed her to get it out of her hands, which was smart. That left other people open, and we've got to be able to hit those shots."
In the first half, Martin scored 18, oftentimes with a defender right in her face. That's the Tynice Martin of old.
"We isolated her a couple of times, but I think the biggest thing is she's moving without the basketball," Carey explained. "She's setting up picks and she's reading picks. That was something she hadn't been doing because I just don't think she was comfortable yet."
Once again on Wednesday night, Carey is going to be in the uncomfortable position of dealing with a limited roster when his team faces 18th-ranked Iowa State at the WVU Coliseum.
Senior guard Katrina Pardee injured her ankle late in the Oklahoma State game and will be out for a minimum of three weeks, possibly longer. Then, senior forward Naomi Davenport got kicked in the head in the second half of last Sunday's Oklahoma game and is currently in concussion protocol.
Carey said Davenport was able to do non-contact work during practice this afternoon and will be able to go live during tomorrow's shootaround. If there are no complications, he is hopeful to have her available on Wednesday night against the Cyclones.
"It looks pretty good right now," Carey said.
Iowa State owns an impressive 13-3 record with early conference wins over Kansas State, Kansas and TCU, which defeated West Virginia 62-48 on Jan. 2.
In their latest game at 11th-ranked Texas last Saturday, the Cyclones and the Longhorns were tied at halftime before Texas pulled out a 64-62 victory.
Six-one guard Bridget Carleton hit her season average of 20 points while also grabbing a team-best nine rebounds against the Longhorns. She shows averages of 19.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game while shooting a solid 45.3 percent from the floor.
The Chatham, Ontario, resident is averaging 25.8 points per game in Big 12 play.
"This is probably the best Iowa State team we've faced," Carey said. "They have a great player, and they have a lot of great players around her. They shoot the ball extremely well and they shoot the 3 from almost every position, which puts a lot of pressure on the defense with their dribble penetration and offensive rebounding."
Carey said the Cyclones will play four-out and will run a lot of different offensive sets to get the ball to their open shooters.
Six different players have hit 10 or more 3s so far this year, including 14 from 6-foot-3-inch freshman center Kristin Scott, whose 12.1 points-per-game average is giving Iowa State a big boost coming off the bench.
"Sometimes you've got to get lucky, and they aren't hitting those shots and you are rebounding those misses," Carey said.
The coach said a big key for his team on Wednesday night will be staying out of foul trouble with a limited number of healthy players available. He used only eight players on Sunday against Oklahoma and was down to seven when Davenport went out.
Fortunately, West Virginia was able to hold on to a big lead.
"I did something the other night I haven't done in probably 10 years," Carey admitted. "I had no timeouts left with about five minutes left in the game because I had to use them to stop runs. I had people out of position, and I just had to take the timeouts, but it worked out.
"As a coach, you've got to stop runs, keep people under control and run your sets," he said.
Look for plenty of those sets to go through Martin on Wednesday night.
Tuesday Sound
Junior guard Tyince Martin is coming off a 20-point performance in this past Sunday afternoon's 66-55 win at Oklahoma, the Mountaineers' second win in a row and 11ththis season.
It's the second straight game the preseason All-Big 12 choice has surpassed the 20-point mark to share Big 12 Co-Player of the Week honors with Baylor's Juicy Landrum.
In West Virginia's 67-58 win against Oklahoma State earlier in the week, Martin erupted for 21 points to help West Virginia to its first conference victory of the season after dropping games at TCU and against Texas.
"I think she's starting to work a little bit harder to get open," West Virginia coach Mike Carey said before Tuesday afternoon's practice. "The second half against Oklahoma, every time she caught the ball they double teamed her to get it out of her hands, which was smart. That left other people open, and we've got to be able to hit those shots."
In the first half, Martin scored 18, oftentimes with a defender right in her face. That's the Tynice Martin of old.
"We isolated her a couple of times, but I think the biggest thing is she's moving without the basketball," Carey explained. "She's setting up picks and she's reading picks. That was something she hadn't been doing because I just don't think she was comfortable yet."
Once again on Wednesday night, Carey is going to be in the uncomfortable position of dealing with a limited roster when his team faces 18th-ranked Iowa State at the WVU Coliseum.
Senior guard Katrina Pardee injured her ankle late in the Oklahoma State game and will be out for a minimum of three weeks, possibly longer. Then, senior forward Naomi Davenport got kicked in the head in the second half of last Sunday's Oklahoma game and is currently in concussion protocol.
Carey said Davenport was able to do non-contact work during practice this afternoon and will be able to go live during tomorrow's shootaround. If there are no complications, he is hopeful to have her available on Wednesday night against the Cyclones.
"It looks pretty good right now," Carey said.
Iowa State owns an impressive 13-3 record with early conference wins over Kansas State, Kansas and TCU, which defeated West Virginia 62-48 on Jan. 2.
In their latest game at 11th-ranked Texas last Saturday, the Cyclones and the Longhorns were tied at halftime before Texas pulled out a 64-62 victory.
Six-one guard Bridget Carleton hit her season average of 20 points while also grabbing a team-best nine rebounds against the Longhorns. She shows averages of 19.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game while shooting a solid 45.3 percent from the floor.
The Chatham, Ontario, resident is averaging 25.8 points per game in Big 12 play.
"This is probably the best Iowa State team we've faced," Carey said. "They have a great player, and they have a lot of great players around her. They shoot the ball extremely well and they shoot the 3 from almost every position, which puts a lot of pressure on the defense with their dribble penetration and offensive rebounding."
Carey said the Cyclones will play four-out and will run a lot of different offensive sets to get the ball to their open shooters.
Six different players have hit 10 or more 3s so far this year, including 14 from 6-foot-3-inch freshman center Kristin Scott, whose 12.1 points-per-game average is giving Iowa State a big boost coming off the bench.
"Sometimes you've got to get lucky, and they aren't hitting those shots and you are rebounding those misses," Carey said.
The coach said a big key for his team on Wednesday night will be staying out of foul trouble with a limited number of healthy players available. He used only eight players on Sunday against Oklahoma and was down to seven when Davenport went out.
Fortunately, West Virginia was able to hold on to a big lead.
"I did something the other night I haven't done in probably 10 years," Carey admitted. "I had no timeouts left with about five minutes left in the game because I had to use them to stop runs. I had people out of position, and I just had to take the timeouts, but it worked out.
"As a coach, you've got to stop runs, keep people under control and run your sets," he said.
Look for plenty of those sets to go through Martin on Wednesday night.
Tuesday Sound
Players Mentioned
G/F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's BasketballRiley Makalusky | Feb. 18
Wednesday, February 18
Mark Kellogg | Feb. 18
Wednesday, February 18
Mark Kellogg, Meme Wheeler & Riley Makalusky | UCF
Wednesday, February 11
Mark Kellogg, Sydney Shaw & Gia Cooke | Arizona
Saturday, February 07
