WVU Women’s Basketball Breezes By Bearcats 69-50

WVU Women’s Basketball picked up a breezy senior night win on Saturday, Feb. 15, rolling over a talented Cincinnati Bearcats team 69-50.

Senior shooting guard JJ Quinerly led the way for No. 18 ranked West Virginia (20-5, 10-4 Big 12) with 29 points, doing what she does best and dominating the pace of play on 11-of-22 shooting (brought down by a 3-of-10 mark from three). No other Mountaineer scored in double figures.

West Virginia’s aggressive defense held the Bearcats to seven points in the opening period and just 21 in the first half, but the Mountaineers struggled to pull ahead because of shooting woes of their own. Cincinnati scored five points in the first 76 seconds and immediately fell into a rut, allowing the Mountaineers to go on a 10-0 run that held the Bearcats without a basket for more than six minutes.

Cincinnati made just 32 percent of their shots and committed 24 turnovers in the face of West Virginia’s aggressive defense: the Mountaineers committed 25 fouls that turned into a 17-of-26 clip from the charity stripe, preventing the game from turning into an onslaught. Nevertheless, the Bearcats inability (and outright refusal: they went just 1-of-6 from beyond the arc) to make or attempt threes left them without a prayer of coming back as the Mountaineers outscored them 22-11 in the third period, leading by as much as 25 before a late 6-0 run helped make the final score look more respectable.

The homestand continues for WVU Women’s Basketball when they host No. 14 Kansas State beginning at 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 17.