BECKLEY, W.Va. -- There was a 10-minute stretch that showed Ashley Brown she has a lot to look forward to in her first season as WVU Tech head women's basketball coach.

But ... 

"We don't play just 10 minutes," Brown said.

Playing against the No. 13 team in the nation, the Golden Bears hurt themselves with 31 turnovers and got dominated on the glass. It added up to a 93-54 season-opening loss to University of the Cumberlands Thursday morning in Brown's head coaching debut.

Sophomore Alexis Sexton (Lexington, S.C.) made the first field goal of the Brown era, giving Tech a 2-0 lead less than a minute in.

And the Patriots took control from there.

Establishing a theme for the morning, the Golden Bears turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions, and the Patriots converted them all into buckets. By quarter's end, Tech had given the ball away 11 times resulting in 19 points for the Patriots en route to a 29-9 lead heading to the second.

The Patriots (1-0) scored the last five points of the first and first five of the second to go ahead 34-9. A runner off the glass by sophomore Nell Marx (Stockholm, Sweden) — making her Tech debut — ended that run, but Cumberlands started another streak with a pair of three-pointers by Amerah Steele — the first of which barely beat the expiring shot clock and bounced twice off the rim before going in.

That was part of a 19-6 streak — Tech got three-pointers from junior Emily Hutchinson (Huntington, W.Va.) and sophomore Rylee Allie (Huntington, W.Va.) — as the Patriots ran to a 53-19 halftime lead.

Tech had only nine players available while many continue to rehab injuries.

"A lot of these kids haven't had to play this type of minutes at this pace," Brown said. "A lot of times it was ugly. For about 10 minutes there was a lot to look forward to, that you could see there was a lot of opportunity there. While it is frustrating to turn the ball over, they got to see what happens when you do those things. It'll come. After now seeing it in game form, it's different."

Tech had 19 turnovers in the first half and Cumberlands converted them to 30 points. Offensively, the Golden Bears shot 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from the floor over the first two quarters.

Steele had a big first half for the Patriots, hitting 5-of-9 three-pointers and finishing with all of her game-high 18 points.

Meanwhile, the Patriots outrebounded Tech 48-33, 28 on the offensive end. Kaylie Monday had nine rebounds and Lakin Burke had seven to go with 12 points off the bench.

Things picked up for the Golden Bears in the second half, led by junior guard Leonor Ferreira (Matosinhos, Portugal). Playing her first game since Feb. 26, 2022 — she missed all of last season with a knee injury — Ferreira hit all four of her three-point attempts and finished with a team-high 15 points. She also grabbed seven rebounds.

"She's one of those that when she gets hot, she's hot. We saw a lot of that today," Brown said. "She is so analytical. In that first half I really think she just thought about the game too much instead of just playing. That's something I always tell them — you've just got to play. Don't worry if this happens or this happens or this happens. You've just got to play."

Destiny Haworth added 13 points for the Patriots. Joy Kendrick had four assists and four other players had three.

Patriots head coach Rick Reeves coached Brown's younger sister Candace when he was at Gardner-Webb.

"I told Ashley I know they're in transition with the coaching change for a first-year coach," Reeves said. "This is my sixth year at Cumberlands. My first year we won one conference game. Any. time she can get her players in that are coming there to play for her and then get these players to adapt to her system ... (Former Tech coach) Roger Hodge is a good friend and a very good coach, but she can't be Roger. She's got to be her own person."

Allie scored 12 points for Tech, while Marx finished with 10 points, three assists and three steals. Sophomore Alva Hedrich (Muecke, Hessen, Germany) grabbed 11 rebounds and had four blocks.

Tech will be back at home Saturday to play Bryant and Stratton College Buffalo in the final game of the Hampton Inn Beckley Golden Bear Classic. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.

The middle game pitting Cumberlands and Bryant and Stratton is set for Friday at 1 p.m.