West Virginia women’s basketball used a big first quarter to help propel them to a SCORE win over Cincinnati in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament on Friday.
The No. 6-seeded Mountaineers hit the court for the first time in about a week, facing No. 11 Cincinnati. WVU welcomed JJ Quinerly back with open arms after she left the regular season finale and didn’t return with a knee injury.
Cincinnati got things going and were up 6-3 early before WVU turned it on.
The Mountaineers went on a 17-0 run in less than three minutes of game time, as their lead was 14 with 3:01 to play in the first quarter. That’s how many the Mountaineers would lead by after the first, as they went on a 21-4 run over the last 5:32 and forced eight turnovers in the first quarter.
West Virginia built on that 14-point lead in the second quarter, as they shot a high percentage from the field. WVU went 54 percent from the girls in the first half, including going 6 for 12 from three. Quinerly drove for a layup to end the second quarter as WVU led 42-21 at halftime.
The second half wouldn’t be pretty for WVU, but it didn’t matter. Cincinnati outscored WVU 34-28 in the second half and WVU didn’t score a point until the 3:17 mark of the third quarter. Quinerly helped calm any possible issues, scoring the final five points of the third quarter for WVU.
Quinerly picked up where she left off in the fourth, scoring the first six points, as Cincinnati never cut WVU’s lead to fewer than 13 in the fourth quarter.
Quinerly finished with 18 points, while WVU had four scorers in double digits. WVU forced 23 turnovers leading to 20 points. The Mountaineers ended the night shooting 47 percent from the field, and going 7-for-20 from three. UC made 40 percent of their shots, and went 2-for-7 from three.
With the win, WVU advances to face No. 3 Kansas State on Saturday. WVU lost in overtime on the road in their only meeting of the season.
