No. 23 West Virginia women’s basketball hit the road and earned their sixth straight win, as they held off BYU, beating the Cougars, 76-69 from the Marriott Center, on Saturday night.
West Virginia (19-2, 8-2 Big 12) started out with two steals and a 4-0 lead, which led to BYU calling timeout with 8:12 left in the first quarter. West Virginia later grew that lead to 24-14 after one quarter.
The Mountaineers had a less dominant second quarter but still outscored BYU 19-15 to lead 43-29 at the half. The Mountaineers built their lead on a 12-0 run in the second quarter.
BYU flipped things coming out of halftime, outscoring West Virginia 21-15 in the third quarter and only trailed by four at one point, but West Virginia still led 58-50 heading into the fourth.
West Virginia kept pace with BYU in the fourth quarter to hold off the BYU rally for the 76-69 final.
Lauren Fields led the Mountaineers with 22 points, her second-best mark in a game this season. JJ Quinerly, Jordan Harrison, and Kyah Watson also had double digits in points with 19, 11, and 10 respectively. Quinerly added five steals as WVU forced 23 turnovers, leading to 29 points for the Mountaineers.
Lauren Gustin paced BYU with a team-leading 16 points. Lauren Davenport and Emma Calvert provided 13 and 12 points respectively off the bench.
Kyah Watson led West Virginia with six total rebounds. BYU’s Lauren Gustin also led the team in rebounds with 14 as they outrebounded West Virginia 37-25.
West Virginia, the nation’s leader in steals per game at 14.6 heading into Saturday, finished with 11 against BYU. West Virginia shot 51.8 percent compared to BYU’s 44.4 percent. BYU outshot West Virginia from the 3-point range 50 percent to 43.8 percent.
WVU is now 8-2 in Big 12 play, and they continue to stay near the top of the conference standings and in the conference title race. WVU is 19-2 on the season and up next is a home game against Texas Tech on Tuesday, Feb. 6 with tipoff set for 7 p.m. EST on ESPN+.
Discover more from Blue Gold Sports
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
