Carey, Mountaineers looking to ride momentum into matchup with TCU

Despite the TCU women’s basketball team’s record and 1-13 Big 12 Conference mark, it has been competing against some solid opponents this season.

In their game against West Virginia Jan. 15, the Horned Frogs were able to keep it close and only fell to the Mountaineers by eight points, 58-50. Now, as WVU hopes to earn the season sweep following a win against No. 24/23 Iowa State, it will need to maintain its solid road play in Fort Worth.

West Virginia will again face TCU Saturday night at 8 p.m. At home, TCU has won all of its eight games, but the Horned Frogs are still searching for their first road win of the year.

WVU will be coming off an impressive victory against Iowa State Sunday afternoon. The Cyclones narrowly escaped West Virginia in Morgantown 53-49, but the Mountaineers got their revenge with a two-point victory.

Freshman guard Bria Holmes contributed 18 points, and senior center Ayana Dunning chipped in 13. West Virginia had a balanced attack with 41 points coming off the bench. Despite trailing by 11 points, the Mountaineers never quit and rallied for the victory.

"I thought we did a good job," said head coach Mike Carey. "We had to make it ugly because we weren’t scoring, so we had to have more quickness and try to get some traps and turnovers. They (Iowa State) do a great job. They’re a great team and very physical."

West Virginia has seemed to find its identity on the road. Whether that means the Mountaineers feel too relaxed and comfortable at the Coliseum or not, the results have been coming away from Morgantown.

"It’s like when we go on the road, we know we want to prove a point to people," said junior guard Christal Caldwell following a home loss to Oklahoma State earlier this season. "When we get here, we get relaxed because we’re at home, but it does seem we play a lot harder on the road."

In the first meeting this season between the Horned Frogs and the Mountaineers, WVU started the game on a good note, but its 24 turnovers allowed TCU to stick around. Still, through the Mountaineers’ solid shooting and out-rebounding the Horned Frogs 48-38, West Virginia was able to win after making its first seven shots and shooting 71.4 percent from beyond the arc in the first half.

"I was real proud of our group for kind of withstanding that (the start for West Virginia)," said TCU head coach Jeff Mittle after the game. "West Virginia is more known for driving the basketball, taking it inside. They were on fire early.

"We had to keep our discipline at that point. I thought our group did a pretty solid job. That’s not easy to do – especially for a young group. We kept telling them in timeouts to stay the course. We got it back to a basketball game; they’re (West Virginia) tough to score on."

The Horned Frogs will be coming off a win against No. 23 Oklahoma State Wednesday night. TCU won its first conference game after falling in 13-straight games with the 64-63 win over the Cowgirls.

West Virginia will hope to have better luck against TCU than OSU in Fort Worth, Texas. Tip off is set for 8 p.m.