West Virginia (16-9, 7-7) traveled to No. 17 Texas (21-7, 12-3) on Sunday afternoon, and were defeated 74-48. The 48 points were the Mountaineers second lowest scoring output on the season, only scoring fewer against NC State on November 25th.
The first quarter was a disaster for the Mountaineers. West Virginia’s rebounding troubles showed up once again, being out-rebounded 16-4 in the quarter, with nine offensive rebounds.
Texas started the game on a 8-0 run, then WVU found themselves down 17-2 with 5:07 remaining in the quarter.
West Virginia responded with a quick 5-0 run to put themselves down 10, and cut the lead to single digits with 33 seconds remaining in the quarter on a JJ Quinerly jumper, but two Texas free throws with two seconds left pushed the Longhorns lead to 11 after one.
The second quarter started with a Longhorns layup, then an Isis Beh free throw for WVU at the 8:01 mark. Neither team would score a point from the 8:01 mark to the 5:09 mark, when Madisen Smith broke the drought for both teams and cut the Longhorns lead to nine on a three pointer. WVU followed up with a stop and a JJ Quinerly transition layup and WVU cut the lead to seven.
Texas was able to recover and went on a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 14 before Madisen Smith hit a three pointer just before halftime to have WVU down only 11 at halftime.
WVU was shooting just 31% at the half, but was able to hold Texas to only 33% from the floor to keep the game within reach. JJ Quinerly led the Mountaineers with nine points in the first half.
Texas and West Virginia traded baskets for the first few minutes of the third quarter, and both teams seemed to find an offensive rhythm. JJ Quinerly hit a jumper with 7:44 remaining in the third to cut the Longhorns lead back to 10 at 41-31.
The end of the third quarter would be where the Longhorns put the game away, allowing only seven more WVU points after the Quinerly jumper. Texas pushed their lead to 18 at the third quarter media timeout, then took their largest lead of the game at that point with 53 seconds remaining on a layup by Taylor Jones that had them up 21 at the end of the quarter.
WVU never found a run in the fourth quarter to get themselves back in the game, finding themselves down by more than 20 points for nearly the whole quarter.
Texas took their largest lead of the game with 3:27 remaining in the game, when a made free throw by Taylor Jones had the Longhorns up 71-44.
West Virginia was nearly doubled up on rebounds, only getting 27 rebounds to Texas’ 53. WVU only managed to shoot 27% from the field, while the Longhorns shot 41%. Texas only made one fewer three pointer, despite shooting 12 less threes in the game.
JJ Quinerly led the Mountaineers in scoring, scoring 16 points on 18 shots before fouling out. Madisen Smith scored 12 points and had three of WVU’s six three pointers in the game.
West Virginia will stay in Texas for a battle with Texas Tech on Wednesday, February 22nd at 8 p.m.
Photo by Aaron Parker
