MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia worked tirelessly to rally from a 14-point deficit in the opening half of Wednesday night’s contest against 10th-ranked TCU at Hope Coliseum.

Marta Suarez erased all of what the Mountaineers worked for with her only three-pointer of the outing.

Out of a timeout with 2.8 seconds remaining, Suarez took an inbound pass from teammate Donovyn Hunter, utilized a jab step to create more separation, and without dribbling, drained a triple over Kierra ‘MeMe’ Wheeler to lift the Horned Frogs to a 51-50 victory at Hope Coliseum.

“The way she stayed in the game and had the confidence to take that shot is kind of how the game went,” Horned Frogs’ head coach Mark Campbell said.

Suarez was 3 for 18 and had misfired on each of her first five attempts from behind the arc before accounting for the game-winning bucket.

“I know I’m a shooter and I’ve done that before. We play a lot in practice and I’ve been in that position before,” Suarez said. “We’ve had a great trip and knowing I have a chance to get a win for my teammates and how much it means for everybody can push me forward.”

MARTA SUAREZ HITS THE GAME-WINNER FOR NO. 10 TCU 😱 pic.twitter.com/XNUQnCxUGm

— espnW (@espnW) January 15, 2026

Were it not for two free throws from Hunter seconds earlier, the buzzer-beating heroics wouldn’t have been possible.

“If she misses one of those, game’s over. For her to stick those foul shots gave us one more chance,” Campbell said. 

Wheeler’s bucket in the paint with 1:01 remaining enabled WVU (14-4, 4-2) to lead 47-46, and after her steal on the other end, teammate Jordan Harrison made a challenged jump shot with 11 seconds left, leaving the home team with its largest lead of the night.

Hunter then drove to the basket and was fouled by Wheeler in the act of shooting. Despite narrowly missing the shot, she made both free throws, and Harrison split the ensuing two attempts to leave WVU with a 50-48 advantage.

“They made essentially made one more play than we did late,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “Disappointing from that standpoint, but proud of our group.”

Kellogg indicated he’d need to review the film before offering a full assessment regarding how he felt the Mountaineers defended the winning shot.

“I haven’t seen it again. We were pretty close. I don’t know how close,” he said. “Our goal was definitely don’t give up a three here and try to run them off the floor and get them inside the paint. I don’t know that we did that, but for the most part, I thought it was fairly well contested.”

It was a trying offensive game for both teams for much of the contest.

The Mountaineers missed 13-of-15 shots to start and trailed 12-4 before scoring the final four points of the opening period to cut their deficit in half.

But TCU continued to smother WVU, and after the visitors ran off 10 unanswered points in the second quarter, they went on to up the lead to 29-15 after Clara Silva and Suarez scored in the paint on successive possessions.

“Offensively, we never had a good rhythm,” Campbell said. “A lot of that is West Virginia and their defense. We were just grinding, stayed in the fight and defended like crazy for 40 minutes. That gave us a chance to steal the game.“

Starting with Wheeler’s layup 1:40 before halftime, WVU outscored the Horned Frogs 8-0 over the remainder of the opening half and was to within six when Harrison scored on a drive to the basket just before the buzzer sounded.

“To close the first to four and half to six was really important based on the way we played,” Kellogg said. 

That momentum carried over to the second half, which the Mountaineers began with eight consecutive points and gained their first lead on the first of Wheeler’s two free throws to break a 29-all tie at the 5:12 mark.

Horned Frogs’ guard Olivia Miles made her fourth triple of the night to break a 31-all tie, and TCU settled for a 38-35 lead entering the fourth.

Sydney Shaw’s conventional three-point play with 5 minutes left gave the Mountaineers a 43-42 lead, and they were still in front by one before Veronica Sheffey scored inside with 1:20 remaining to give TCU a 46-45 advantage.

Although WVU scored on each of its three remaining possessions, the Mountaineers fell to 1-3 this season in games decided by five or fewer points.

“Our effort was good defensively and we took a step, so I’m encouraged there,” Kellogg said. “We have to find a way to close these close games.”

Miles led TCU with 14 points and Suarez scored 11. 

Harrison led all players with 19 points and was responsible for five of the team’s 15 field goals. With the exception of her effort, WVU made 10-of-39 shots as the team shot 28.3 percent altogether. The Mountaineers were also 1 of 8 from long range.

“They tried to speed us up a little bit. We were playing a little too fast and when we did get the opportunities, we were kind of surprised,” Harrison said. “We were rushing our shots and not taking some of the ones we needed to.”

Wheeler grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and helped WVU out-rebound the Horned Frogs, 39-33

The Horned Frogs had 24 turnovers and the Mountaineers finished with 23.

“That was just one heck of a defensive battle,” Campbell said. “We go about our defenses completely different, but each team was elite at what they do. Buckets were hard to get all game for both teams.“