West Virginia headed to Fort Worth, Texas on Saturday afternoon for a Big 12 matchup with TCU. Sophomore guard JJ Quinerly scored 23 points in the victory, which was their 4th win out of their last five conference games.
Quinerly started off the game aggressive, scoring six of the Mountaineers 13 first quarter points on 3-7 shooting. Jayla Hemingway added another five points and West Virginia had a slim 13-12 lead after one quarter.
West Virginia was able to create separation from the Horned Frogs in the second quarter, opening up an 11 point lead with 3:50 left on a Quinerly 3 pointer, and the Mountaineers took a seven point lead into the halftime break. West Virginia held TCU to just 32% from the field in the first half, and 8% from three while forcing 10 turnovers. West Virginia shot 41% from the field and 27% from three.
TCU was able to make inroads on the West Virginia lead in the third quarter, cutting the Mountaineer lead to three with 5:59 to go in the quarter on two Lucy Ibeh free throws. The lead would get cut to one 1:24 left in the third quarter when Roxanne Makolo made a layup. Tavy Diggs would get a layup for West Virginia off a TCU turnover that had the Mountaineers up three heading into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter is where JJ Quinerly did most of her damage, scoring 12 points on 5-5 shooting, including hitting a three pointer. TCU was able to answer Quinerly’s run though, led by Tomi Taiwo, who had eight points in the quarter, never letting the Mountaineer lead get higher than seven again in the game.
West Virginia was able to hold onto the lead, defeating the Horned Frogs 62-55. West Virginia forced 19 turnovers and scored 17 points off of them, while out-scoring TCU 36-24 on points in the paint. West Virginia improved to 5-3 in conference with the win, and moved up to fourth place.
Photo by Aaron Parker
