Mountaineers Tame Bearcats and Advance to the Quarterfinals
Kansas City - West Virginia junior guard JJ Quinerly led all scorers with 18 points and the Mountaineers (24-6) forced 23 Cincinnati turnovers to advance to the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Conference Championship over the Bearcats (14-17) Friday night 70-55.
West Virginia trailed 6-3 near the midway point of the first quarter before going on a 21-4 run, shooting 5-9 from three-point range and forcing seven of Cincinnati's eight first quarter turnovers during that stretch to take a commanding 24-10 lead at the end of the first period.
Cincinnati guard Reagan Jackson buried a three to cut the lead to 11 to open the second quarter but a three from senior Lauren Fields sparked a 7-0 run to extend the Mountaineer to 18, 33-15.
West Virginia guard Kyah Watson hit the buck and drew the foul to push the lead to 21 and JJ Quinerly drove to the basket to maintain the advantage and take a 42-21 lead into halftime. Redshirt sophomore guard Kyah Watson led all scorers at the break with 11 points behind an efficient 4-6 from the field.
The Mountaineers went on a six and a half minute scoring drought to open the second half while the Bearcats went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 11 but consecutive layups from Watson and senior guard Jayla Hemmingway put the Mountaineers up 46-29 with 3:06 remaining in the third quarter.
JJ Quinerly scored all five of her third quarter points in the final two minutes to keep the Bearcats at bay as the Mountaineers held a 51-36 lead at the end of the third period.
Quinerly continued her momentum in the fourth quarter, scoring a quick six points to extend the lead to 18 and Hemmingway hit a pair of free throws to give West Virginia a 62-42 lead with 4:22 left to play.
Jayla Hemmingway led the Mountaineers in the fourth quarter with seven points to fight off a Bearcats comeback as West Virginia knocks Cincinnati out of the Big 12 Championship with the 70-55 victory.
West Virginia will meet the Kansas State Wildcats Saturday night at 9:00 EST and the action will stream on ESPN+.