No. 22 West Virginia fell in a top 25 showdown against No. 18 Baylor 65-58 on Saturday afternoon at the Foster Pavillion in Waco, Texas.
West Virginia (20-3, 9-3 Big 12) came into the game with a seven-game win streak, and that was put to the test by the Lady Bears (18-5, 7-5 Big 12) early. The Mountaineers had found a lot of success recently in the first quarter, but Baylor led 15-11 after the first quarter.
Baylor would then turn on the jets and go on a 7-0 run, causing West Virginia to call timeout trailing 22-13 with 7:19 left in the second quarter. Baylor would then extend that lead to as manymuch as 13 before leading 34-26 at the half.
The Mountaineers shot 36 percent from the field in the first half, going 2-for-12 from deep in the process.
Shooting woes continued to hurt West Virginia as Baylor started to create separation in the third quarter, and Baylor would lead 49-38 after three.
West Virginia started to crawl back into it in the fourth quarter, outscoring Baylor 20-16 in the fourth, but their comeback was thwarted in the closing seconds as the deficit was cut to as few as five. JJ Quinerly had a mid-range look to cut Baylor’s lead to three, but she missed and the Lady Bears closed out their win at the free throw line.
Quinerly led West Virginia with 13 points on the afternoon. Kyah Watson had a career day, having a double-double with 12 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.
Quinerly had averaged 24 points per game over WVU’s last five games, but she went 4-for-14 from the field, and 1-for-3 from three.
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs paced Baylor with a double-double performance with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Bella Fontleroy also had a double-double performance for Baylor with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Baylor both out-shot and out-rebounded West Virginia 48.1 percent to 32.3 percent and 41-33 respectively. West Virginia, the nation’s leader in steals per game, finished with 11 compared to Baylor’s six.
West Virginia was shut down offensively for much of the game. Their 32.3 field goal percentage was their third-lowest percentage in a game this season, as was their 58 points.
Up next is another road game out in Texas against TCU on Tuesday, Feb. 13 with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN+.
