KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WVU) – The West Virginia University women's basketball team defeated Cincinnati, 70-55, in the second round of the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship inside T-Mobile Center on Friday night.
The win marks the first for the Mountaineers (24-6) at the Big 12 Championship since winning the opening game of the 2022 Championship. West Virginia picks up their 24th win in a season for the 11th time in program history.
Junior guard
JJ Quinerly led all scorers in the contest with 18 points, shooting 58.3% from the field. Guards
Kyah Watson and
Jayla Hemingway added 13 points and six rebounds apiece, respectively.
Sophomore guard
Jordan Harrison collected 14 points, three rebounds and three assists. Defensively, West Virginia finished the game with 13 steals, led by fifth-year guard
Lauren Fields with six. Field's steals are the most by a Mountaineer in a Big 12 Championship game.
Watson scored the opening three points of the game, before a 6-0 run from the Bearcats shut down the Mountaineers' offense until the 5:32 mark. West Virginia finished the tail end of the first with a 17-0 run to lead the Bearcats 20-7 with 2:40 on the clock. A pair of free throws from junior guard
Tirzah Moore solidified the 24-10 advantage to lead into the second quarter.
The Mountaineers went on to lead by as much as 18 points in the second quarter, after back-to-back field goals made off Bearcat turnovers by Quinerly and Moore. A buzzer-beater by Quinerly closed out the second quarter with WVU leading UC 42-21.
Cincinnati held West Virginia scoreless until the 3:17 mark in the third quarter before a pair of layups from Watson and Hemingway advanced the Mountaineers' lead, 46-29. Quinerly went on to add her 12th point of the night and the last of the third quarter, making the score 51-35.
West Virginia and Cincinnati traded points in the fourth with UC outscoring WVU, 20-19, as the Mountaineers secured a 70-55 victory.
Next up, West Virginia will face off against Kansas State in the quarterfinal round of the 2024 Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship on Saturday, March 9 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT.
Championship Central