MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 19/21 West Virginia University women's basketball team opens 2020 Big 12 play on Sunday, Jan. 5, as the Mountaineers travel to Manhattan, Kansas, to square off against Kansas State.
 
Opening tip is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan. Dan Zangrilli and Ayana Dunning will call the game for the Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College. The game can be found on Jack-FM 100.9 and Sirius/XM channel 375 as well as affiliates across the state, the TuneIn Radio App and WVUSports.com. Sunday's game will be broadcast on FOX Sports Networks and locally on AT&T SportsNet.
 
"They play 2-3 (zone), they're long, very long," WVU coach Mike Carey said. "They're all around six-foot, and they have a 6-5 girl inside. They play a 2-3, they play a 1-2-2, which gave us problems last year. They can extend a little bit but not as much as they have in the past, and they have some scorers."
 
"It's a tough place to play, it really is. We'll have to go in there and play very well. We'll have to shoot the ball well and take care of the basketball to get into the zone."
 
The Mountaineers (10-1) and the Wildcats (6-5) meet for the 17th time in the series on Sunday. WVU holds an 11-5 advantage all-time against K-State. KSU has won the last two meetings, including a 72-59 contest in the opening round of the 2019 Big 12 Tournament. West Virginia last defeated Kansas State, 60-30, on Jan. 26, 2019, at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown. The victory marked the fewest points allowed by in a Big 12 game in program history.
 
This year marks the fourth consecutive year that WVU will open Big 12 play on the road. The Mountaineers are 3-4 all-time in Big 12 conference openers and 4-3 in Big 12 conference road openers.
 
West Virginia is coming off a 68-62 win over Cornell on Dec. 31, at the WVU Coliseum. Redshirt senior Tynice Martin WVU in scoring against the Big Red, adding 19 points, and was one of three Mountaineers to finish with 10 or more points. Redshirt junior guard Kysre Gondrezick and sophomore forward Kari Niblack finished with 14 points and 10 points, respectively. Freshman forward Esmery Martinez led WVU on the glass, with seven rebounds. With the win, West Virginia has won five straight games, tying its season-long win streak.
 
Kansas State is led by sixth-year head coach Jeff Mittie, who has compiled a 106-71 record during his time in Manhattan. The Wildcats are coming off a win on Dec. 28, defeating the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 79-66 in Manhattan. Forward Ayoka Lee leads KSU in scoring, averaging 15.5 points per game, and is one of four Wildcats averaging doubles figures in scoring this season. Lee (15.5 ppg, 11.0 rpg) and teammate Peyton Williams (15.0 ppg, 12.2 rpg) lead K-State in rebounding and are the only two teammates averaging a double-double this season.