MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Its last time out, 19th-ranked West Virginia squandered a six-point halftime lead and lost at TCU, preventing WVU from controlling its destiny in the Big 12 Conference regular season race.
The Mountaineers played like a team eager to jump back into action Saturday afternoon at Hope Coliseum when they welcomed Oklahoma State.
West Virginia jumped all over the Cowgirls from the opening tip, making its first six shots and never coming close to trailing in a 72-40 victory.
“We put the TCU game behind us in a good way and maybe used it as a little motivation,” Mountaineer head coach Mark Kellogg said.
West Virginia (22-6, 12-4) made its first six field-goal attempts, a stretch that included a Gia Cooke three-pointer that was banked in, which left the Mountaineers with an 8-0 lead at that time.
“We started a little off the past couple games and off this bye week, we were excited to play,” Cooke said. “We had a lot of momentum and kept our foot on the gas and never took it off. We made shots and made the right reads.”
When Carter McCray scored in the paint with 4:16 left in the first quarter, WVU had its first double-digit advantage at 16-6.
The Mountaineers led 20-6, before OSU (21-8, 10-6) drew to within 23-12 when Haleigh Timmer closed the first-quarter scoring with a triple.
WVU led 37-23 after Oklahoma State got a jumper from Stailee Heard 2:40 before halftime.
Starting with Cooke’s second made triple off the backboard in response, the home team closed the opening half by running off a dozen unanswered points, a stretch that included two buckets from Kierra ‘MeMe’ Wheeler, another one from Cooke and Sydney Shaw’s trey just before time expired that left the Cowgirls facing a 49-23 halftime deficit.
“I called the second one,” Cooke said of her threes off the backboard. “I didn’t call the first one. We talked at halftime like, are you doing this on purpose?”
Through two quarters, WVU made 20-of-30 shots, including 9 of 16 from long range and had 16 assists.
“We had ball movement and an understanding spots on the floor we wanted to attack going in,” Kellogg said. “Credit the players for making the right plays. Oklahoma State switched to zone for majority of that game. It slowed us for a little bit and we kind of got going when we figured our footing there.”
OSU, meanwhile, went to the break shooting 9 for 30 with nine turnovers.
“West Virginia was really good today. They could not miss in the first half,” Oklahoma State head coach Jacie Hoyt said. “They came out looking like a team off a loss and a bye week. We couldn’t make anything. Then it’s just really hard to recover after you have a half like that. The game was pretty much over in the first half. “
Playing without injured guard Jadyn Wooten for the first time this season, the Cowgirls struggled to grow comfortable offensively. Wooten averages 12.1 points and 5.1 assists.
“There couldn’t be a worse team to play without Jayden because of their press,” Hoyt said.
OSU, which entered averaging 83.4 points, did not surpass 23 until nearly halfway through the third quarter when Amari Whiting converted a follow-up attempt to make it 55-25.
In the third, the Cowgirls were held to five points on 2 for 17 shooting shot 2 for 17 and they faced a 62-28 deficit through 30 minutes.
“You have to find ways to be disruptive with your defense and we found ways to be disruptive,” Kellogg said.
Cooke led all players with 21 points. Five of her seven field goals were threes — the second-highest single game total for Cooke in a Mountaineer uniform.
Wheeler scored 18 on 9-of-14 shooting and led all players with 10 rebounds.
Jordan Harrison scored 12 to make it three double-figure scorers. She also had seven assists — one more than OSU.
Sydney Shaw scored nine over 21-plus minutes, and did not return after exiting the third quarter with an injury to her head and mouth area that led to stitches.
“She wasn’t medically cleared to return,” said Kellogg, who had no further update on her status.
Heard’s 13 points led OSU, which finished with 15 field goals, 16 turnovers and 17 offensive rebounds that led to only four second-chance points.
“We practiced guarding the three-point line and we knew they were good in transition,” Wheeler said. “We knew what they were good at and wanted to take that away.”
WVU donned pink jerseys and encouraged fans to wear pink in support of breast cancer. All five Mountaineer starters were joined by at least one breast cancer survivor as they were introduced.