Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament Cincinnati vs. West Virginia Preview
Here is everything you need to know about Cincinnati and UCF in our Bearcats vs. Knights Big 12 Tournament women’s basketball second-round preview.
Game 6: No. 11 Cincinnati (14-16) vs. No. 6 West Virginia (23-6, 12-6)
Time, TV: 8 p.m. CT Friday, Big 12 Now/ESPN+
Location: T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, MO
Season series (West Virginia 2-0): West Virginia def. Cincinnati, 68-53; West Virginia def. Cincinnati, 72-43.
Tournament Results: Cincinnati: def. UCF, 67-62 (first round); West Virginia: Tournament opener.
Winner gets: a Saturday game with No. 3 seed Kansas State at 8 p.m. CT.
Here is the full Big 12 women’s tournament schedule and results.
Projected starting lineups
Cincinnati: F Jillian Hayes, F Malea Williams, C Destiny Thomas, G Reagan Jackson, G Ariel Jackson.
West Virginia: F Kylee Blacksten, G Jordan Harrison, G Kyah Watson, G JJ Quinerly, G Lauren Fields.
Players to watch
Cincinnati
G Reagan Jackson: She scored 12 points against UCF in the first round and she drained a trio of threes, making her a threat the Mountaineers will have to track. Jackson averaged 8.3 points during the regular season, while also grabbing 2.6 rebounds. She’s not a threat on Jillian Hayes’ level (not yet anyway), but she is capable of producing. The freshman scored double figures nearly a dozen times this season.
West Virginia
G JJ Quinerly: The junior was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year after averaging three steals per game and led the conference in that category for most of the season. Her entire game went up a level this season, as he became one of the top scorers in the conference, averaging 19.4 points. She also averaged 3.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists in the regular season. She has scored 30 or more points in three games this season, including 33 points against Baylor two weeks ago.
Key storylines
Cincinnati
Cincinnati kept the season moving with their win over UCF, but in order for the Bearcats to reach .500 for the season they’ll have to make a deep run in Kansas City. Sustaining success has been a problem for them in Big 12 play. Cincinnati won back-to-back games in conference just one time this season, beating Texas Tech and UCF within four days in early February. Cincinnati won six straight games in November and December, and one of those wins was over Kentucky.
West Virginia
The Mountaineers underwent a coaching change after last season as Dawn Plitzuweit left to take over at Minnesota. The Mountaineers hired Mark Kellogg away from Stephen F. Austin and he led the Mountaineers to a 13-0 start and eventually led them into the AP Top 25. At one point in Big 12 play WVU won seven games in a row and nine out of 10, solidifying them as an NCAA Tournament team. Kellogg believes in press defense and he has a group of players that execute it to near-perfection.
Prediction
West Virginia 75, Cincinnati 60. WVU forces more than 20 turnovers per game. The Mountaineers are really good at turning that into offense. The Mountaineers should move on.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
