West Virginia Beats Cincinnati in Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament
The West Virginia Mountaineers beat Cincinnati, 70-55, in the second round of the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City on Friday.
For the Mountaineers (24-6), it was their third win over Cincinnati this season. West Virginia, the No. 6 seed, will face No. 3-seed Kansas State at 8 p.m. Saturday in the quarterfinals.
Kansas State won the only meeting with West Virginia in Big 12 play.
The Mountaineers continued their NCAA Tournament-bound first season under head coach Mark Kellogg, as four different WVU players ended up in double figures and they forced 23 Cincinnati (14-17) turnovers.
JJ Quinerly, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, was the leading scorer with 18 points. She connected on a pair of 3-pointers, along with Lauren Fields and Kyah Watson.
Watson and Jayla Hemingway added 13 points, while Jordan Harrison had 14 points. The Mountaineers held a 42-21 edge on the Bearcats at halftime.
Cincinnati was the last of the four new Big 12 teams to be eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament. BYU lost to Kansas earlier on Friday.
On Thursday, Cincinnati sent UCF home while Texas Tech defeated Houston.
Jillian Hayes was the only Bearcat in double figures with 12 points.
West Virginia will play in the final game of Saturday’s quadruple-header which features all four quarterfinal games. The day kicks off with Baylor facing Iowa State at 11 a.m. followed by TCU facing top seeded Oklahoma at 1:30 p.m. and Kansas facing No. 2 seed Texas at 5:30 p.m.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
