The West Virginia women’s basketball team overcame a blistering hot start from the Kansas State Wildcats Friday afternoon in an exciting, must-win game. West Virginia rode a great defense and a strong second half to defeat Kansas State, 73-69, and advance to the next round of the Big 12 tournament. Read West Virginia, Quinerly defeats Kansas State in Big 12 quarterfinals below.
Momentum Swings
The game featured major swings in momentum for both West Virginia and Kansas State. The Wildcats came out hot, shooting 86.7% from the field in the first quarter to end with a commanding lead, 33-23. The Mountaineers tightened up on defense in the second quarter, closing out the half with a small run to cut the lead to 12 at the half.
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West Virginia found their rhythm in the second half. Sophomore, Jordan Harrison, scored 11 of her 19 points in the third quarter. Her layup late in the third quarter gave the Mountaineers their first lead since the early minutes, 54-53. Moments later, Kansas State senior forward, Temira Poindexter, banked in a three at the buzzer to put the Wildcats up 58-56 to end the third quarter.
West Virginia opened the fourth quarter with an incredible 10-2 run, grabbing its largest lead of the game, 66-60. Kansas State answered with a 9-1 run of their own. Serena Sundell, Poindexter, and Kennedy Taylor were electric during Kansas State’s run, putting the Wildcats back on top, 69-67 with under two minutes to go.
However, West Virginia dominated the final 1:53, holding Kansas State scoreless. JJ Quinerly delivered the play of the game. She anticipated an inbound pass, stole it, drove the floor, and hit a floater with 44 seconds left to put the Mountaineers up 71-69. Kansas State missed a wide open three and WVU’s Sydney Shaw hit her two free throws to end the game.
Playmakers
Quinerly continues to lead the Mountaineers. She scored a game-high, 24 points, shooting 9-18 from the floor and sealing the victory with a clutch steal. Harrison scored 17 of her 19 points in the second half and ended the game with four assists. She was a big reason the Mountaineers were able to come back from a sluggish start. On the glass, Jordan Thomas recorded six rebounds for the Mountaineers.
The Wildcats started hot, setting a record for the most points scored in one quarter in the Big 12 women’s tournament. Kennedy Taylor was a big part of that, scoring 21 points and shooting a perfect 9-9 (100%) from the floor. Taylor is the first player in Big 12 tournament history to record a perfect shooting percentage on nine attempts of more from the field.
Kansas State’s prolific ball movement also led to Sundell’s nine assists. Those nine dimes were more than the entire Mountaineers team (eight) for the game. While the Wildcats ran out of momentum in the second half, Kansas State should be a dangerous team going forward.
Resilience
West Virginia head coach, Mark Kellogg, spoke of the team’s resilience and the importance the win tonight.
“I think we thought it was going to be a battle,” Kellogg said. “We needed that. We want to continue to be battle-tested. When things didn’t go our way, I was the most proud early that we weathered the storm. We talked about that, because that was a storm they came out with and we couldn’t get the game slowed down.”
In her post-game comments, Quinerly agreed with Kellogg. She characterized the game as a revenge tour and admitted that they had it circled on the calendar.
“We lost in the same game last year, so for us coming into this game was like a revenge tour, and we wanted to get them back,” Quinerly said. “We just wanted to go out there and play our hearts out, just give them nothing easy and just play.”
The team’s grit and grind mentality should serve them well as they advance deeper into the Big 12 tournament.
Next Up
West Virginia will take on Hailey Van Lith and #1 seeded TCU at 4:00 pm EST on Saturday, March 8th at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. You can catch the game on ESPN+.
Jordan Harrison wastes no time, from interview to celly in a flash ⚡️#Big12WBB | @Phillips66Gas pic.twitter.com/ehDqpYldZG
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 7, 2025
