The Mountaineers win big at home against the Kansas State Wildcats

The No.17 ranked Mountaineers Women’s Basketball team wins triumphantly at home against the No.12 ranked Kansas State Wildcats with a final score of 57-70.

Mark Kellogg’s Mountaineers knew they were in store for a huge matchup at the Coliseum. Coming into the game, the Wildcats were ranked first overall in the Big 12 Conference with a conference play record of 12-2. Despite having a 24-3 overall record and going undefeated at home throughout the entirety of their season, the Wildcats looked to travel into enemy territory and emerge victorious. However, the Mountaineers had different plans.

The game started with each team not letting up an inch of leverage. Kansas State’s Temira Pointdexter started the game hot, tallying 8 points in the first quarter. But, with the help of JJ Quinerly’s incredible finishing ability and Jordan Harrison’s agility and elite passing abilities, the Mountaineers found themselves tied up with the Wildcats at 19 apiece at the end of the first quarter.

Coach Kellogg knew that if his team wanted to gain any sort of momentum or lead in this game, he needed to get his bench players involved. That is exactly what transpired in the second quarter. Forward Jordan Thomas scored 9 points on 4-6 shooting from the field, and Sydney Woodley scored 5 points on 50% shooting. Those performances, followed by a big three-pointer from Sydney Shaw, gave the Mountaineers a six-point lead heading into halftime.

The Wildcats are a very pace and pass-oriented team, and if you are not able to slow them down, they are going to run all over you. The Mountaineers knew this and took full advantage coming out of halftime.

JJ Quinerly, who had 9 points, and Jordan Harrison, who had tallied 10 points, had seemingly gone cold before halftime. However, both caught fire after halftime. The Mountaineers dominated the second half on both sides of the ball. Harrison was scorching hot, shooting 50%, not just from beyond the arc but for the entire game. However, it was Quinerly who stole the show. JJ went from having 9 points at halftime to finishing the game with 26 points. Quinerly shot 11-25 on the game and was 4-10 from three-point range.

It was the dominant second-half performances from JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison paired with the strong first half support from the bench that enabled the Mountaineers to steamroll past the Kansas State Wildcats to a 57-70 victory at home in front of an insanely loud and large home crowd. The Mountaineers have now jumped up to fifth place in the Big 12 Conference after their huge home victory. The former first-place Kansas State Wildcats dropped all the way down to third in the Big 12 and look to bounce back on Saturday as they take on their in-state rivals, the Kansas Jayhawks. As for the Mountaineers, this was a warm-up, the Mountaineers have their toughest matchup yet coming on Sunday as they take on the new top dog in the Big 12 as they travel to Fort Worth Texas to take on the No. 10 ranked TCU Horned Frogs.