MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia begins the most difficult portion of its regular-season schedule on Saturday against 24^th-ranked Oklahoma State.
 
The Cowgirls defeated the 21^st-ranked Mountaineers 64-57 in Stillwater back on Jan. 11, one of only four losses for the women so far this year.
 
The others were against fifth-ranked Texas in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida, at Colorado on Dec. 20 to tip off Big 12 play, and most recently, last Saturday night at Arizona on the second leg of West Virginia's two-game tour of the Grand Canyon State.
 
In that game, the Wildcats gave West Virginia a little dose of its own medicine by forcing 21 turnovers and limiting the Mountaineers to just one of 12 from beyond the 3-point arc. Senior guard JJ Quinerly needed 25 shots to score 26 points, and the only other player to reach double figures was guard Sydney Shaw with 10.
 
"The disappointment comes in when I don't think they are meeting the level where I think they can get to," West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg said earlier today during his weekly visit with the media. "The difficult part with Arizona is we thought we had rectified some of those woes from the Colorado and Oklahoma State losses, and maybe we didn't as much as we thought we had maybe figured out a couple of those things on the road."
 
Kellogg attributes some of WVU's recent road woes to simply missing open shots, but against Arizona, he thought the Wildcats forced his team into taking too many bad shots in its 15-point defeat, the Mountaineers' worst this season.
 
"We need a third and a fourth scorer," he explained. "If we can get four scorers, then we typically have a good chance of winning every game. If we get one or two, or if JJ has to take everything on her own, then we probably may not succeed as much."
 
In the loss at Oklahoma State earlier this month, OSU held Quinerly to just 10 points on four of 16 shooting. Kylee Blacksten was the only other WVU player to reach double figures with 16.
 
After shooting 56.3% and scoring 24 points in the first quarter, the Mountaineers only managed 33 points for the remainder of the contest, including just seven in the third period when Oklahoma State took control of the game.
 
An inability to hold on to early double-digit leads and finish games strong were factors in the league defeats at Colorado and Oklahoma State. West Virginia fought back in the third quarter against Arizona and was trailing by only seven with less than eight minutes left before the Wildcats rallied to put the game away.
 
West Virginia is 11-0 overall at home and 4-0 in Big 12 play, while splitting its four conference road games so far.
 
The WVU Coliseum has certainly been kind to the Mountaineers, and Kellogg is anticipating a big turnout on Saturday afternoon against the Cowgirls, 27^th in the most recent NCAA NET rankings. 
 
The Oklahoma State contest begins a nine-game stretch that includes No. 24 Baylor in Waco on Feb. 11, against No. 7 Kansas State at the Coliseum on Feb. 17, against No. 10 TCU in Fort Worth on Feb. 23, and against No. 26 Utah at the Coliseum on Feb. 26.
 
In between is a road game at No. 175 Houston and a pair of contests against No. 69 Cincinnati.
 
These games are going to determine how and where West Virginia ends up in the postseason beyond the Big 12 tournament. 
 
"We know what's coming. It's a gauntlet, whether it's back loaded or front loaded; it's a brutal league, and that's the way it works," Kellogg explained. "We're halfway through, and we'll flip it. We're two games back of first place, and we're 13 in the NET. The computers like us, but we need some quality wins, and we will have some opportunities."
 
That starts on Saturday at noon against a 17-3 Oklahoma State team that plays host to Arizona State later tonight. The Cowgirls, 7-2 in Big 12 play, recently got a big victory over TCU, which puts them a game behind the 8-1 Horned Frogs and a half-game behind 7-1 Kansas State in the conference standings.
 
Below them are 6-2 Baylor, and West Virginia, Utah and Iowa State, each 6-3.
 
What Oklahoma State also presents West Virginia is an opportunity for the Mountaineers to get their first Quad 1 victory of the season.
 
"There are other opportunities for us, but yes, you only get so many opportunities to play at home against ranked teams in front of your crowd, and you certainly want to take advantage of the opportunity when it's presented to you," Kellogg said. "And that's what we will hopefully do on Saturday."