There is no place like home. Just ask the WVU Tech women.
Playing inside the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center for just the third time this season, the Golden Bears rolled to a 96-80 win over Ohio Valley University.
The win snapped a three-game slide for Tech (3-7) and raised its River States Conference record to 3-1.
“Overall, I think we played more as a team today. We executed a lot better than we have been,” assistant head coach Ashley Brown said. “We made adjustments in the second half and we fed off those adjustments. We were able to build overall.”
Brown was filling in for head coach Roger Hodge, who was ejected from the game over the weekend against Union College after being assessed two technical fouls late in the game. Hodge was serving a one-game suspension.
The Golden Bears were also playing without one of their top scorers and inside force, Brianna Ball.
“We have had some injuries and it has been tough here in the beginning of the season,” Brown said. “We had some people really step up today.”
One of the key players that stepped up for the Golden Bears was sophomore point guard, Alanis Hill. Hill scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds. More importantly to her team’s success Tuesday was her game-high 12 assists.
“Alanis really stepped up a lot tonight and almost had a triple double,” Brown said. She is one of those kids where if you unleash her, she can do a lot of good things. She created more for her teammates. She was really able to penetrate and pitch tonight. We have worked a lot on that and we really fed off her.”
While the final outcome looked to be an easy win, the game was far from it for three quarters. The Fighting Scots were also hungry for a win having dropped both of its regular season games so far.
The first quarter featured five lead changes with Tech holding a 22-19 lead after the first 10 minutes.
Two strong takes to the hoop by Hill and a 3 in transition from Brittney Justice gave the Golden Bears a 10 point lead less the two minutes into the second quarter.
Jessica Smith rallied the Fighting Scots scoring 11 points over the next four minutes to tie the game at 34 apiece.
A floater from Lucia Gancedo gave Ohio Valley a brief lead before a triple from Brittney Justice and a jumper from Elle Baker put Tech back up 39-36.
The Scots would tie the game twice down the stretch, but two free throws from Justice gave Tech a 43-41 lead at halftime.
While Brown was happy to have the lead at the break, she was not overly thrilled with the play of the Golden Bears.
“I am a defensive person and I talked mostly about defense and our lack-there-of in the first half,” Brown said. “We talked more about their personnel and what they were doing to hurt us. We made adjustments on how we would guard them. We also talked about how we would fix our zone.”
A long ball from Whittney Justice was followed by a steal and a score from Hill to give Tech a quick 48-41 lead.
Still the Golden Bears could not shake the visitors. Although the Scots would never lead in the second half, they trailed by just two with 3:47 left in the third period.
With the defense wearing on Ohio Valley, the offense moved to another gear and began to pull away.
Combining for 13 points over the final three minutes of the quarter, the Justice twins helped build a nine point lead by the end of the third quarter. The biggest lead of the game would be 19 with 4:30 to play in the contest.
“Offensively we went over what we were doing wrong in our break and what we needed to do better,” Brown said. “The defense led to our offense in the second half.”
Brittney Justice finished with 30 points and nine rebounds, while Whittney Justice had 24 points, four rebounds and four assists.
“The twins are always going to come out and perform every game,” Brown said.
Marina Garcia and Smith led the Scots with 22 points apiece.
“We needed this win for our confidence. We have had some tough moments mentally on the girls, so we wanted to bounce back and get back to our normal selves this game,” Brown said.
WVU Tech will return to action Saturday when it travels to Ohio Christian University. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m.
